LLC Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez, a subsidiary of PJSC Lukoil, has broken ground on construction of a deep conversion, delayed coking complex at its 17 million-tonne/year Kstovo refinery in central Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region (OGJ Online, Nov. 2, 2017).
Alongside a delayed coker, the 2.1-million tonne/year complex—which began construction on Aug. 29—will include a diesel hydrotreater, a gas fractionator, hydrogen and sulfur production units, as well as infrastructure installations, Lukoil said.
Once fully commissioned, the complex will enable the Nizhny Novgorod refinery to slash its production of fuel oil, increase refinery yields up to 95.5%, and achieve higher synergy with fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) units already in operation at the site.
Scheduled for full startup in 2021, the new complex will increase the refinery’s yield of light petroleum products to 76% from a current 64%, the operator said.
Start of construction on the delayed coking complex follows Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez’s recent award of contracts to Maire Tecnimont SPA, Milan, subsidiary KT-Kinetics Technology SPA to provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for implementation of five processing units for the project, including a diesel fuel hydrotreating unit, a hydrogen production unit, a pressure-swing adsorption unit, as well as a gas fractionation unit and a sulfur recovery unit (OGJ Online, July 23, 2018).
Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez’s previously commissioned a second 2 million-tpy catalytic cracking complex for vacuum gas oil at the refinery in 2015 as part of Lukoil’s broader program to boost overall processing capacities and production qualities of its refining assets (OGJ Online, July 9, 2015).
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
