Gazprom Neft adds rail project to Omsk refinery upgrade

PJSC Gazprom Neft has started construction of a railcar oil products-loading terminal, AUTN-1, at its 21.4 million-tonne/year Omsk refinery in Western Siberia as part of the ongoing modernization and upgrading program to reduce environmental impacts as well as improve processing capacities, conversion rates, energy efficiency, and production qualities at its Russian refineries by 2020 (OGJ Online, July 27, 2016).

Designed to replace the existing open-gallery overhead rail installation at the Omsk refinery’s Commodity Supply Base No. 1, the 1.2 million-tpy AUTN-1 will be fully automated to improve accuracy of filling operations and commercial accounting for all product shipments, including gasoline, diesel, marine fuels, aromatic hydrocarbons (paraxylene, o-xylene, benzene, toluene concentrate), and aviation fuels, Gazprom Neft said.

To prevent release of fumes at the loading operations, AUTN-1 will feature unidentified technology to ensure airtight and leak-proof filling, including an activated carbon filtration system capable of absorbing up to 99% of vapor from finished products and returning it to the refinery for reuse in secondary processing activities, the operator said.

While it confirmed a project cost of 2.8 billion rubles, Gazprom Neft did not reveal a firm timeline for startup of AUTN-1.

This latest project joins a series of works under way as part of the second phase of the Omsk refinery’s modernization program, which specifically aims to further improve the manufacturing site’s overall environmental performance as well as its yield of light-end petroleum products (OGJ Online, Mar. 20, 2017; Feb. 10, 2017).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].