Gazprom Neft begins unit revamp at Omsk refinery

JSC Gazprom Neft has started work on the reconstruction of the catalytic cracking complex for the deep processing of fuel oil at its 21.4 million-tonne/year Omsk refinery in Western Siberia, Russia.

Assembly of major processing equipment involved in the reconstruction project is under way, as is preparation of the construction site, which is next to the refinery’s existing catalytic cracking plant, Gazprom Neft said.

Designed to increase the refinery’s ability to more thoroughly process its crude feedstocks, the reconstruction project, once completed, will increase the capacity of Omsk’s catalytic cracking complex by 15% to 2.3 million tpy from its current capacity of 2 million tpy, the company said.

More importantly, however, reconstruction and modernization of the deep processing complex will increase its gasoline production almost exclusively to Euro 5-quality, high-octane gasoline by 2016, with the overall production volume to rise by more than 30%, said Oleg Belyavsky, general director for the Omsk refinery.

Following the reconstruction, the sulfur content of fuels manufactured at the complex will be 2-3 times lower than its current production, Gazprom Neft said.

The project, which required a total investment of 6 billion rubles ($117 million) is scheduled to be completed in November, the company said.

Reconstruction of the existing complex, which began operation in 1994, comes as part of a second phase in Gazprom Neft’s phased program to modernize and upgrade its Russian refineries to improve processing capacities, oil conversion rates, energy efficiency, production quality, and environmental impacts by 2020 (OGJ Online, Dec. 2, 2013).

As part of first-stage modernization work at Omsk, which concluded in 2013, the company commissioned a catalytic-cracking and diesel hydrotreatment complex (OGJ Online, Dec. 3, 2014).

Currently under way, the second phase of the Omsk modernization program, which aims to improve the overall yield of light-end refined products, also includes plans for reconstruction of an alkylation unit to increase the unit’s production capacity, as well as construction of a grassroots methyl tertiary butyl ether plant (OGJ Online, Feb. 12, 2015).

Most recently, Gazprom Neft announced it has completed installation of major equipment related to the reconstruction and modernization of the Omsk refinery’s primary crude oil distillation unit (OGJ Online, Apr. 27, 2015).