Uchenna Izundu
International Editor
LONDON, Aug. 6 -- The 120,500 b/d Nizhnekamsk refinery, 250 km from Tatarstan's capital city of Kazan, will have a refining capacity of 7 million tonnes/year following upgrade efforts currently under way (OGJ, Sept. 25, 2006, Newsletter). The refinery, which will be renamed OJSC Taneco, will be commissioned in phases during 2011-12. OAO Tatneft, Almetyevsk, Russia, is the refinery's main shareholder.
Foster Wheeler Italiana will design and supply materials for two furnaces for the hydrocracking unit, a charge heater, and three interheaters for the continuous catalytic reformer unit. It is also carrying out detailed engineering of two heaters for the new delayed coker (OGJ, Oct. 9, 2006, Newsletter).
Taneco, a Tatneft unit, has let a contract to Foster Wheeler Italiana SPA to supply fired heaters by yearend 2009. Terms were not disclosed.
The company already has carried out the front-end engineering and design for the new complex and the process design package for the delayed coker following the award of the contract in 2006.
The refinery will have aromatics units and a deep conversion section with a fluidized catalytic cracker, a distillate hydrocracker, a delayed coker, and a gasification plant.
The petrochemical plant will include purified terephthalic acid, polyethylene terephthalate, linear alkylbenzene and polypropylene units, plus the associated power generation facilities. Oil products will be sent to Europe.
The project was originally expected to cost $3 billion when it was first announced but rising costs, construction completion, and the ultimate availability of project financing, are all key challenges, the company said.
Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].
