Kimmo Vahanto: For Neste, Safety Means Excellence in Risk Management

Neste is the world’s largest producer of renewable diesel refined from waste and residues, introducing renewable solutions also to the aviation and plastics industries. And this is done to enable our customers to reduce climate emissions. Neste has a single refinery entity comprising five production lines in Finland: four located in Porvoo, one in Naantali.

At the Naantali production line, we produce, among other things, diesel, solvents, bitumen and small-engine gasoline. The refining capacity of crude oil at Naantali is approximately 58,000 barrels a day, with the production totaling approx. 3 million tons a year. Neste has over a million cubic meters of storage capacity for crude oil and oil products in Naantali.

The Naantali oil harbor is the sixth-largest port in Finland in terms of cargo volume. Some 330 ship calls a year, with around five million tons of raw materials and products transported via a year.

Neste operates in a high-hazard environment where safety has strategic importance. For us, safety means excellence in risk management. It is about the existence and effectiveness of all safety barriers that help mitigate risk and prevent incidents. If an incident still happens, the most efficient measures should be in place. We represent this industry view in the OIL SPILL project. Neste participates in the exercises and enhances co-operation together with actors engaged in oil spill response

As we participated in the HAZARD project already, I see OIL SPILL as the best possible way to go forward. We have a good co-operation between different authorities, and with the help of the project, it is natural to stay in touch. I am always looking forward to the next project meeting.

Exercises form a big part of the OIL SPILL project. One large-scale exercise was already well on a planning phase and agreed to be executed in June 2020. Sadly COVID-19 came, but hopefully it only postponed the exercise. I see a lot of potential in these exercises in terms of co-operation and the ways of working.

Kimmo Vahanto, Manager, Naantali harbour and terminal at Neste