Polish integrated energy group Orlen has opened a marine transshipment terminal at its Gdansk refinery, giving the plant direct access to tankers and reducing its reliance on road, rail and third-party port infrastructure, according to Orlen.
The facility on the Martwa Wisla river cost nearly PLN 500m (about $133m) and will handle refinery feedstocks, petroleum products and biofuel components.
Orlen expects about 500,000 tonnes from roughly 100 vessel calls in its first year, before throughput rises towards annual capacity of 1.8m to 2m tonnes.
The terminal has already loaded marine gas oil and received fatty acid methyl ester, or FAME, for biofuel production.
“The terminal shortens the supply chain, increases the operational flexibility of the Gdansk refinery and strengthens our operational independence,” chief executive Ireneusz Fąfara said. Its 380-metre quay has two identical berths able to handle two tankers simultaneously. Each can take vessels of up to 10,000 dwt, 130 metres in length, 17.6 metres in beam and 5.8 metres in draught. Eight automated, bidirectional loading arms can operate at pressures of up to 10 bar, with each transfer system rated at up to 500 cubic metres per hour. Each arm weighs about 18 tonnes.
Orlen plans to export Group I and Group II base oils, low-sulphur marine gas oil and xylene. Incoming cargoes will include FAME, used cooking oil methyl ester, ethanol and the petrol additives MTBE and ETBE.
The first commercial transfer took place on 15 July with ECOMAL II, a Polish-flagged bunker tanker owned by Gdansk-based Przedsiębiorstwo COMAL. Trial operations included the discharge of ethanol carried from the Netherlands by Nordic Saga.
The project was built mainly by Polish contractors.
Orlen operates in oil and gas production, refining, petrochemicals, power generation and fuel retail. It has seven refineries in Poland, Czechia and Lithuania with annual crude-processing capacity exceeding 30m tonnes, and about 3,500 filling stations in seven European markets. Poland’s State Treasury held 49.9% of Orlen as of its June 2026 annual general meeting.