Lukoil lets contract for petrochemical unit at Burgas refinery

PJSC Lukoil has let a contract to Lummus Technology LLC’s Lummus Novolen Technology GMBH to provide technology licensing for a grassroots petrochemical unit to be built at subsidiary Lukoil Neftochim Burgas AD’s 139,000-b/d integrated refining and petrochemical complex on the Balkan peninsula, about 15 km from Burgas, Bulgaria.

As part of the contract, Lummus will license its proprietary Novolen gas-phase polypropylene (PP) technology for a new 280,000-tonnes/year PP unit at the refinery, as well as deliver basic design engineering, training and services, and catalyst supply for the project, the service provider said on Oct. 8.

Lummus disclosed no details regarding a value of the contract or a timeframe for its work on the proposed project.

Award of the contract for the proposed PP unit follows Lukoil’s completion of feasibility studies in 2019 for PP production projects at both the Burgas refinery and subsidiary LLC Lukoil Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez’s (NNOS) 337,100-b/d Kstovo refinery in central Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, the company said in its latest annual report to investors.

In September, Lukoil also let a contract to Lummus Novolen Technology to license technology and deliver associated services for NNOS’s PP unit (OGJ Online, Sept. 10, 2020).

The PP units at Burgas and Kstovo will use a feedstock of propylene produced by the refineries’ existing catalytic cracking units, according to Lukoil.