Gazprom Neft lets contract for Moscow refinery

Russia’s JSC Gazprom Neft has let a contract to Tecnimont SPA, a subsidiary of Maire Tecnimont SPA, Milan, for engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) services related to a long-planned combined oil refinery unit (CORU) upgrade and modernization project at its 12.15 million-tonne/year Moscow refinery.

The scope of the project covers implementation of a hydroskimming plant, including processing and associated units, designed to boost the refinery’s production of gasoline and diesel that meets Euro 5-quality specifications, Maire Tecnimont said.

The project is scheduled to be completed within 36 months, the service provider said.

Maire Tecnimont valued the EPCM contract, which is under a lump-sum scheme for EP and a reimbursable scheme for CM, at about €480 million.

First announced in 2013, the CORU project at Moscow is to include the following:

• Crude distillation and vacuum distillation units.

• A continuous catalytic reforming unit with naphtha hydrotreatment and hydrogen recovery by pressure-swing adsorption.

• A diesel hydrotreater including a dewaxing section.

• A gas plant with an LPG sweetening unit.

• Associated common utilities (OGJ Online, May 7, 2013).

The Moscow CORU project comes as part of the second phase in Gazprom Neft’s program to modernize and upgrade its Russian refineries to improve processing capacities, oil conversion rates, energy efficiency, production quality, and environmental impacts over 2013-20 (OGJ Online, Jan. 14, 2015; Dec. 3, 2014).

Recently completed second-stage modernization work at the Moscow refinery includes the start-up of a newly reconstructed and refurbished sulfur-recovery unit, which the company commissioned in October (OGJ Online, Oct. 3, 2014).

The company also began in 2014 a second-stage program project designed to improve the efficiency of furnaces at the Moscow plant. The project, which involves the installation of furnaces and renovation of existing ones, will enable the refinery to increase furnace efficiency to 90%, while the increase in equipment efficiency will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from the site by more than 95%.

Additionally, Gazprom Neft recently completed installation and commissioning of an automated air-monitoring system at Moscow’s key units as part of the refinery’s modernization program, the company said in an Apr. 15 release.

A project to reconstruct and revamp the Moscow refinery’s existing catalytic cracking unit to increase processing capacity also is planned, as are projects to construct hydrocracking and flexicoking units at site, the company told investors in May.

Once completed, the modernization program at Moscow will increase overall design capacity of the refinery to 18.15 million tpy.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].