Accessibly, transparently, quickly: TAIF-NK augments sales volumes through e-trading platform

Tatarstan’s big oil refinery

Leading Russian moguls of oil production and oil processing operate in Tatarstan — one of the most economically developed and investment attractive regions of Russia. Young successful company TAIF-NK is one of them. Its history began over 20 years ago, but even today the products made in the enterprise are among 100 Best Goods of Russia and famous far beyond the country.

Today TAIF-NK unites three plants: an oil refinery, a petrol plant and heavy residues deep conversion complex. The oil feedstock conversion rate is 74,6%. The installed capacity of oil processing in the plants is 8,3 million tonnes a year. This includes 7,3 million tonnes of oil a year and a million tonnes of gas condensate.

“A distinctive feature of TAIF-NK is constant development and improvement. The management and staff of the enterprise actively support the course for modernisation and development of production, persistently follow a well-thought-out strategy thanks to which the enterprise augments feedstock processing volumes, improves its financial performance,” says Anatoly Chekashov, the vice chief engineer of TAIF-NK JSC in prospective development.

Allocating considerable money to modernise the production, TAIF-NK JSC achieves the most important goals — to introduce the latest technologies and improve process safety, enhance energy effectiveness and augment the production of sought-after products.

“TAIF-NK is one of the innovative sites of the country”

A big reconstruction of the section 300 MDHU (Middle Distillate Hydrotreatment Unit) has become one of the key investment projects in the last years. The modernisation allowed increasing the productivity of the atmospheric gasoil hydrotreatment unit to 2,3 million tonnes a year. The capacities of other units included in the MDHU increased afterwards — hydrogen and sulfur production units.

“We completed works to reconstruct the oil refinery in the section 300 in 2012. This enabled to take the quality of diesel fuel to the level of Euro 5 with the sulfur content no more than 10 ppm (0,001%). Changes affected the petrol plant took. A unit for selective hydrotreatment of components of car petrol by Axens technology was built here,” Vice Chief Engineer of TAIF-NK JSC in prospective development Anatoly Chekashov said.

Thanks to the job done in September 2016, TAIF-NK switched to the production of Euro 5 fuel production. President of the republic Rustam Minnikhanov visited the solemn ceremony when Euro 5 motor fuel went into industrial production having noted the company’s significant contribution to improving the environment in the region:

“TAIF-NK is one of the innovative sites of the country where the production of Euro 5 standard diesel fuel was just recently launched, and today we have launched fuel production. It is our environment — emissions into the atmosphere will reduce by 21 tonnes if cars use Euro 5 fuel as cars are the main load on the environment in cities, which is equal to 60-70%. And we have no option, we all should use only Euro 5, both diesel fuel and petrol. It is the way we should choose.”

The main advantage of Euro 5 by TAIF-NK is high environmental safety. Thanks to high purification, it contains much less sulfur — no more than 10 mg/kg compared to Euro 4 petrol, which has 50 mg/kg of this dangerous element. And it directly and considerably reduces emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.

The petrol doesn’t have existent gum, which guarantees a reduction in the formation of coke in engines and increases their capacity. A special production technology implemented in the enterprise excludes the content of harmful substances in the petrol — lead, iron, manganese. Benzene content is also minimum.

TAIF-NK products have repeatedly participated in international exhibitions and won prestigious competitions. In 2019, TAIF-NK proved the high quality of its products again having become a laureate in the competition Best Goods and Services of the Republic of Tatarstan.

RON 95 C5 petrol became the winner in Producer Goods, while C5 class 2 winter Euro fuel (DF 3 C5) was awarded the 1st-degree diploma.

Today TAIF-NK produces over 25 names of oil products: petrol, diesel fuel, kerosene, vacuum gasoil, butane butylene and propane propylene fraction, bitumen, lead, pitch coke, mazut and others.

Euro 5 diesel fuel is the most popular product among buyers. Nevertheless, RON 92 and RON 95 petrol, aviation kerosene and jet fuel are no less popular.

“There are two key areas, two key outlets — it is exports and the domestic market. Of course, we prioritise supplies to the domestic market (the Republic of Tatarstan and Russian Federation). Export markets can be divided into EEC countries, mainly it is Europe and CIS countries,” noted Anatoly Chekashov, the vice chief engineer of TAIF-NK JSC in prospective development.

The company sells part of its products through ONLINECONTRACT ETP. Last year, RON 92 and RON 95 petrol standards, Euro 5 diesel fuel, bitumen, lead, pitch coke, mazut were up for electronic auction. The company plans to increase the volume of sales through ETP this year.

Reliable outlet to sell oil products

ONLINECONTRACT (ETP) electronic trading platform is not only a reliable outlet to sell the plants’ products at open electronic auctions but also a convenient tool to automate sales.

“We are one of the oldest ETPs, we have been operating since 2007 and very quickly went beyond the Republic of Tatarstan. Over 60,000 companies from 63 Russian regions and 73 countries of the world are our clients. Moreover, we would like to note that they all are legally valid. We daily monitor bases of our clients and block access for companies that entered the stage of dissolution or bankruptcy to procurement procedures,” noted Director of ONLINECONTRACT ETP Aleksandr Gurov.

ONLINECONTRACT ETP helps companies to optimise costs, find suppliers or buyers as soon as possible keeping transparency and honest competition of procurement procedures and auctions. TAIF Group of Companies account for the main volume of sales in the sector Exchange Products, and TAIF-NK is one of them.

“The principles of operation of this sector are the following: an enterprise exhibits part of manufactured goods on our platform in the section Exchange Products for sale, and it becomes available to an unlimited pool of registered companies. After simple and clear registration, any company can contract this volume, moreover, there are economic stimuli for signing a contract,” says Director of ONLINECONTRACT ETP Aleksandr Gurov.

The first commercial deal with sale of oil products at ONLINECONTRACT ETP was in June 2007, TAIF-NK was the seller. The company has been quickly and effectively selling monthly resources of oil products, arrange shipping since then. Now the system is well-oiled considering buyers’ wishes. The enterprise’s auctions take place in real time mode.

“ETP expands outlets, the products become accessible to a big number of potential buyers. TAIF-NK both purchases commodities and materials and sells its key and unsaleable goods on ETP. Moreover, functions of ETP allow selling products with the help of different mechanisms: reverse auction, open competition lists and so on. This allows us to provide saleability of products, fix a market price and cover a big number of potential buyers of products,” said head of the Sales Department at TAIF-NK JSC Askar Sulteyev.

ONLINECONTRACT ETP also gives TAIF-NK a chance of defining the level of demand that directly influences the pricing policy and production plan. Prices fixed at open auctions help to flexibility react to changes in the market and generate an additional profit for the enterprise.

4 steps to make a purchase

To purchase TAIF-NK’s products via ONLINECONTRACT ETP, it is necessary to undergo a simple procedure:

• To sign up as a legal entity or sole proprietor. Afterwards, you will receive a username with password to access the account by email you indicated. It takes about 15 minutes.
• It will take another 20 minutes to provide a scan of documents — the minimum package of constitutional documents, power of attorney, agreement.
• To put down a refundable security deposit (a payment marked as urgent is processed for an hour on average).
• To participate in an auction online. A deal for the only purchaser will be made in 10 minutes after submitting an application for purchase.

This is how products of TAIF-NK can be purchased just within two hours via ETP.

According to employees of ONLINECONTRACT ETP, the number of buyers via ETP steadily grows. Offers of partnership come from CIS countries — Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan. Nowadays the company is considering the possibility of bursting onto the international level. They have all the possibilities and functions for this.

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