Nail Maganov says goodbye to mazut of TANECO
The delayed coking unit has been launched at the refinery of Tatneft
On 3 July, the main event (for now!) in the economic life of Tatarstan took place at the complex of oil refineries TANECO — Tatneft launched the operation of the delayed coking unit (DCU), which will allow to increase oil refining efficiency from 73 to 95%. According to the economic analyst of Realnoe Vremya Albert Bikbov, the company has chosen the right track, as the process of delayed coking is one of the most effective in solving the problem of oil refining efficiency, because it allows to obtain from oil residues the additional resources of feed naphtha, which is possible to turn into motor fuels through refinement.
Mazut weight off
Why 'the event of the year'? Isn't it quiet overstated? The answer is no!
The launch of the unit will allow TANECO to move away from the production of black oil products and to reach the 'zero' of mazut. Though for that it is necessary to put into operation the naphtha hydrotreating unit (1.1 million tonnes per year) and hydrotreating of heavy gas oil coking unit (850 thousand tonnes). But the main priority node in the chain — the DCU — has already started its work.
What does this mean for oil refining industry? This means a completely different economy of the project TANECO. The previously existing mazut production in large quantities (we are talking about the output of 2 million tonnes per year) was a heavy stone for the economic efficiency of oil refining.
Low-processed oil in Russia is particularly useless: annually it is produced at the amount of more than 70 million tonnes. About half of this amount is produced in the Volga Region. The transportation at long distances of oil produced by TANECO is unprofitable, not to mention the purely logistical problems.
To do it in time before the abolition of the tax deferral
Besides, there is also the issue of tax manoeuver in oil refining industry.
In 2015, the duty on black oil products must have grown to the level of duty on crude oil. The budget was provided with appropriate additional incomes. However, the industry was not ready: at many refineries the modernization was not completed. As a result, ordinary plants would have suffered multibillion losses, many would have been closed. The postponement of the introduction of a one hundred percent duty on mazut for two years was necessary for the companies to implement investment programmes. To the credit of TANECO, they made everything on time — to the date of termination of the deferral of the duty on fuel oil, TANECO will not produce the fuel oil.
That, of course, will dramatically improve the entire overall economy of TANECO, will increase its value added cost and gross regional product of Tatarstan.
Ouroboros of TANECO
The DCU will process 2 million tonnes of heavy oil residues per year. They will produce petroleum coke and other distillate products (heavy and light gas oils) from them. The latters will be used for processing at the combined hydrocracking installation of TANECO with the release of motor fuels.
Along with reaching the designed capacity of the DCU, which has the largest capacity in Russia, it will produce 700 thousand tonnes of petroleum coke annually.
The obtained solid petroleum coke is planned to use as fuel for energy production at Nizhnekamsk TPS-2 (which is in the group of companies Tatneft). The use of coke will reduce the environmental stress because the used technologies are regulated by the most modern environmental standards and meet the standards that the EU is only planning to adopt in 2016. Besides, it will allow you to perform the task of closed loop — on the base of own raw materials to produce electrical and thermal energy for consumers of oil production and refining.
To substitute the American intellectual import
According to the news Agency Devon, the cost of the project of the DCU is 11.603 billion rubles (without VAT). The main project organization is LUKOIL-Nizhegorodniinefteproekt PLC. The construction contractors were US Neftekhimstroy, VTM Salavat,Spetsenergomontazh, Spetsprommontazh, «Servistekhnomontazh, Tatelectromontazh, Tsentromontazhavtomatika.
A very interesting fact — in the design it was used the Russian technology, developed by SUE Institute of oil refining, Ufa city. The technology has a full patent purity together with the best world practices of a design of delayed coking units. There is an excellent example of import substitution, mainly because in the world they use the technology of delayed coking from Foster Wheeler (the USA). Despite the fact that TANECO has acquired the license from the company for the delayed coking unit, they decided not to use it. The reason for that is the devaluation, as well as excessive financial appetites of the Americans, and further dependence on them. We have managed to do it by ourselves, in Russia, with Russian contractors.
Well done, Tatneft!