INTEGRATED
REPORT
2019

- A +
PL EN
- A +
PL EN

Water

GRI indicators:
Capitals:

Surface waters are the main water source for the Group companies. They are abstracted by the ORLEN Group’s largest companies: ANWIL, IKS Solino, PKN ORLEN, ORLEN Południe, ORLEN Lietuva, Unipetrol, Paramo and Spolana, and then distributed through water mains to their own production facilities and to other companies’ units.

GRI:
  • 303-1

The ORLEN Group consumed over 94 million m3 of surface water, groundwater and mains water in 2019 . Most of the water was used by PKN ORLEN, which abstracted 437,389 m3 of groundwater and 27,771,220 m3 of surface water for the purposes of its production units and distribution infrastructure. This means that its total consumption grew by more than 51,000 m3 vs 2018 following an increase in production volumes and the commissioning of new units. Moreover, due to the progressing climate change (higher temperatures in summer), the demand for water at ANWIL and its third party customers also rose considerably, by 1.8 million m3. There has also been a marked increase in the amounts of mains water abstracted by the service stations operated by the Czech subsidiary Benzina.

Water consumption at ORLEN Group companies

Water intake Water withdrawal [m3] Increase/decrease [%]
2019 2018
Surface water 89,090,471 85,722,181 3.93
Groundwater 1,555,827 1,536,927 1.23
Mains water 3,441,486 3,019,705 13.97
Total 94,087,784 90,278,813 4.22

What is worth mentioning here is the partial recirculation of water in units operated by PKN ORLEN, ORLEN Południe, Anwil, Basell Orlen Polyolefins, ORLEN Lietuva, Paramo, Spolana and Unipetrol, which significantly reduces water withdrawal from the environment.

Reuse of recovered water

GRI:
  • 303-3

In recent years, the ORLEN Group has made a number of investments that result in a more efficient  use of water and increase the safety of water and sewage systems.

ORLEN Group companies recover water from treated effluents and use steam condensate circulation systems and closed water systems for cooling in production processes.

In 2019, 2.03 billion m3 of water circulated in their cooling systems with a total capacity of 268,930 m3. More than 24 million m3 had to be refilled as a result of losses and evaporation. This means that 2 billion m3 of water remained in constant use. Moreover, the companies recovered nearly 9.5 million m3 of steam condensate; after its proper pressure was restored at the companies’ CHP plants, the condensate was returned to the units. Production of utility water from treated effluents is carried out at PKN ORLEN and ORLEN Lietuva. In this way the companies were able to obtain more than 7 million m3 of water for fire protection and other purposes.

In total, more than 2 billion m3 of water was reused at Group companies in 2019, accounting for 2,145% of the water consumption, i.e. more than 21 times more than the withdrawn water volumes.

Read also

Natural capital
Air emissions
Previous page
Environmental and climate responsibility
Next page
Effluents

Search results