REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: Inclement weather in Russia causes disruption

Inclement weather has been affecting product shipments from Russian refineries, while a surge of omicron cases has pushed down products demand.

Rosneft's Tuapse refinery on the Black Sea resumed crude intake early Feb. 11 after improved weather allowed it to ship out products, Russian crude pipeline operator Transneft said. The refinery halted crude intake on Feb. 8 as the port of Tuapse was closed due to a storm, preventing loadings of oil products, Transneft said.

The Perm, Komsomolsk, Yaisky, Angarsk, Achinsk refineries, which had also reduced crude intake over the past few days due to disrupted loadings of oil products, have now resumed, Transneft said.

The refineries were struggling to ship product due to heavy snowfall across Russia. The situation was exacerbated by a lack of railcars, which had been accumulating along the rail roads due to heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures, according to market sources.

In the winter, fuel oil needs to be heated before being transferred on to tankers for export which caused shortages of fuel oil rail cars. In addition, lower demand for gasoline due to rising omicron cases and a consequent reduction in road traffic has exacerbated ullage problems at tankfarms and also led to a backlog of rail cars.

Separately, Russian refineries are set to start their seasonal maintenance. "Throughputs are expected to fall over the coming months with the onset of the maintenance season in February, before bouncing back" in the third quarter, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report.

In other news, Russian companies are reporting mixed runs in Q4.

Lukoil's Russian refineries processed 42.616 million mt in January-December 2021, 6.3% up on the year, and 10.92 million mt in Q4, down 3.1% on the quarter, due to "seasonal throughput optimization in Russia."

Russia's Rosneft said that throughput at its Russian refineries in 2021 rose 2.3% on the year to 95.1 million mt. In Q4, they processed 23.4 million mt, 1.6% up on the year "due to higher processing against the background of rising oil products demand on the domestic market."

In 2021, the company's Komsomolsk refinery completed an upgrade of a CDU-VDU unit dubbed ELOU-AVT-3 with 5.5 million mt/yr capacity, which enabled it to increase the light products yield and VGO.

Ryazan meanwhile upgraded furnaces and switched them to the use of natural gas.

In Kazakhstan, the government is looking to extend the turnaround cycle at Kazakhstan's three refineries, which would foresee the shutdown of only one refinery per year. This would secure sufficient diesel supply for the agricultural works.

In other news, Uzbekistan's Fergan and Bukhara refineries have fully restored processing shortly after a power outage in late January. The Central Asian power system connecting Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan suffered a "significant emergency imbalance" Jan. 25 leading to power cuts in several regions of the three countries.

NEW AND ONGOING MAINTENANCE

UPGRADES

LAUNCHES

Near-term maintenance

New and revised entries

** Output and exports of some products have been affected by the fire at Russia's Antipinsky refinery in early January, according to trading sources. According to sources the coker has been halted as a result of the fire. The fire occurred at a fractionation column, the local emergency ministry said Jan. 4.

** Russia's Saratov refinery is expected to carry out full maintenance in March. The refinery deferred maintenance that has been planned for October and November 2021 to 2022.

** Russia's Novokuybishev refinery is set to carry out major works in April.

** Russia's Omsk, Moscow and Yaroslavl will carry out partial maintenance in April.

** Russia's Volgograd refinery is due to carry out partial works. It is also in the process of upgrading one of its CDU VDU units.

** The maintenance at Kazakhstan's Shymkent could be deferred to November 2022 and possibly to 2023.

** The Kazakhstan government is looking at the possibility for the maintenance at Pavlodar to take place from end June till mid July, after the end of the sowing works.

Upgrades

New and revised entries

** The hydrocracker at Ufanefteckhim, which has been offline due to a fire since 2016, is expected back in May following repairs.

** An expansion is considered for Kazakhstan's Shymkent refinery as a way to cover the country's rising products demand, according to a government website. The existing land allows for the refinery's capacity to be expanded from 6 million mt/yr to 12 million mt/yr. In order to provide sufficient feedstock, however, the Atyrau-Kenkiak pipeline needs to be expanded as well, according to the energy ministry Bolat Akchulakov.

Existing entries

** Russia's Volgograd refinery is in the process of upgrading one of its CDU VDU units. Unit ELOU-AVT-5 (CDU VDU 5) will be undergoing reconstruction over the course of 2022. The refinery has four primary processing units.

** Russia's Omsk is in the process of launching the newly built diesel hydrotreater and dewaxer unit. The new unit, with 2.5 million mt/year of feedstock capacity, will replace two outdated units. The diesel produced at the new unit will have cold properties of up to minus 40 degrees Celsius. Omsk has also successfully completed the construction of a delayed coker. The delayed coker, along with a hydrocracker, will form part of the deep crude oil processing complex of the Omsk refining complex. Finalizing of the works in the deep processing complex will increase the depth of processing up to 100%. The 2 million mt/year complex will enable the refinery to increase the depth of processing and regulate yields of gasoline, jet fuel and lubricants feedstock. The company has also started assembly of electricity equipment at the catalytic cracker at Omsk as part of the unit's upgrade. Omsk has also completed the installation of the main equipment at the primary CDU-VDU processing complex. The complex, with 8.4 million mt/year of capacity, will allow the refinery to take six outdated units out of service.

Separately, the refinery started a project to upgrade the AVT-10 primary processing complex, which has a capacity of 8.6 million mt/year.

** Socar confirmed that the new catalytic cracking unit at Azerbaijan's Heydar Aliyev is an FCC cracker which will produce dry gas, C3 and C4 LPGs, stabilized FCC naphtha, LCO and slurry. The refinery has signed license and design agreements with Axens. The Heydar Aliyev refinery is currently undergoing a full reconstruction and modernization, with the addition of new units. New gas flare, steam generator, demineralization and water cooling facilities will be commissioned in January and February. Socar plans to start production of Euro 5 diesel by mid-2022 and Euro 5 gasoline (Ai-92-95) by mid-2023, both dates having been pushed back due to the pandemic. The ongoing work includes replacing all the units of the refinery except one, and in the process, increasing the capacity to 7.5 million mt/year from 6 million mt/year.

** Russia's Rosneft and Italy's Maire Tecnimont have signed a contract for the construction of a hydrocracker complex at the Ryazan refinery. The contract follows a memorandum of intentions signed in Oct. 2021. The new complex, with 2.2 million mt/year capacity, will help the refinery to increase the depth of processing and achieve higher margins through the conversion of heavy into light products. It will include a hydrocracker, as well as hydrogen and sulfur units.

** Russia's Komsomolsk carries out a large-scale project involving the construction of a hydrocracker and hydrotreater with 3.65 million mt/year capacity, which will enable it to increase the output of Euro 5 diesel. Once launched, the refinery's depth of processing will increase to 92%.

** Russia's Salavat is upgrading the catalytic reformer, which will increase its feedstock capacity from 1 million mt/year to 2 million mt/year.

** Russia's Moscow refinery has started the construction of its deep processing complex. Works have started on the delayed coker, hydrogen and hydrocracker units, which are part of the complex, due for completion in 2025. Gazprom Neft's refinery has chosen Spanish engineering company Tecnicas Reunidas to construct the new delayed coker. It has also awarded a contract for two delayed coker heaters to Lummus Technology and selected South Korean company DL E&C Co to participate in the hydrocracker construction. The delayed coker, which will have a 2.4 million mt/year capacity, will enable the refinery to increase production of road fuels and start producing petroleum coke. The 2 million mt/year hydrocracker, a sulfur production unit, and a hydrogen unit are also part of the complex. The complex will enable the refinery to reach almost 100% depth of processing and halt the production of fuel oil.

** Russian oil company Tatneft in late Dec. 2021 said its Taneco refinery has launched in test mode a gas fractionation, the second delayed coker and a diesel catalytic dewaxer. It has previously said it planned to start them in test mode in December. The gas fractionator helps it expand its production by starting production of LPG used as motor fuel, normal butane and isobutane. The diesel catalytic dewaxer will produce arctic grade diesel and the delayed coker will allow the production of more distillates and petroleum coke from heavy residue. Separately, two new reactors for modernization of Russia's Taneco hydrocracker have been completed and shipped, said the producer of the equipment of Russia's Izhorski plants. The refinery has a 2.9 million mt/year hydrocracker.

** Lukoil has awarded Lummus Technology a contract to build a new integrated MTBE and alkylation plant at its Perm refinery in Russia. Meanwhile, Lukoil has awarded a contract to Honeywell UOP for using its technology in its new FCC and Merox units at Perm, according to local media. Lukoil will build a catalytic cracker complex at its Perm refinery in Russia. The complex will have 1.8 million mt/year feedstock capacity. It will include a catalytic cracker, as well as a high-octane gasoline components unit, S&P Global Platts reported previously. The complex is expected to be launched in 2026 and will increase the output of high-octane gasoline.

It will also allow the refinery to produce propylene to be used as petrochemical feedstock.

** Russia's Novoshakhtinsky has started the construction of its gasoline complex. It aims to produce around 670,000-680,000 mt/year and construction is due to start in 2021. The complex is due for launch in Q1, 2024. It will process up to 894,000 mt/year naphtha. It will include a gasoline hydrotreater, an isomerization unit and a catalytic reformer and will enable the refinery to produce Euro 5 gasoline. Separately, the refinery plans to launch a 1.8 million mt/year diesel hydrotreater in Q3 2024. Russia's Glavgosexpertiza, the state construction and engineering auditor, approved the construction of a sulfur unit as part of the diesel hydrotreater complex. In Q1, 2027 it expects to launch a deep-processing complex, which includes a hydrocracker and delayed coker. It plans to launch an LPG production unit in Q1, 2023. Following the completion of the upgrades, which are part of the third stage of upgrades, the refinery will be able to produce up to 3.2 million mt/year of diesel and 400,000 mt of petroleum coke.

** Naftan refinery in Belarus will fully launch its new delayed coker in Q1'22.

The unit was affected by a fire in the week ending Oct. 1, due to a diesel leak during testing. The delayed coker at Belarus Naftan was expected to be launched and produce its first batch of product by the end of this year. Previously the complex was expected to come online in 2020. Tests are underway at the new hydrocracker at Belarus Mozyr refinery. The hydrocracker, along with a hydrogen and sulfur units, is part of the H-Oil complex. The completion of the hydrocracker H-Oil complex at Mozyr will cut fuel oil output and increase light products. The complex, with feedstock capacity of 3 million mt/year, will increase its light products yield to 70% and depth of processing to 90%.

** Russia's Yaisky refinery is starting the third phase of its upgrade. By 2026, it plans to complete a dewaxing complex with 2.6 million mt/year capacity and a delayed coker with 1.34 million mt/year capacity. The commissioning of those complexes will increase its depth of processing to 93% and enable it to produce diesel with improved cold properties. Earlier this year, it completed the second phase of its upgrade, including a deep processing complex that enabled it to produce over 700,000 mt/year of Euro 5 gasoline. The complex includes a gasoline hydrotreater, isomerization and CCR unit.

** Russia's Orsk continues with its upgrades, including the construction of the delayed coker complex. It is currently receiving the equipment for the delayed coker complex. The refinery started building the delayed coker in Q3 2020 and plans completion in Q3 2023. Safmar plans to build new deep processing complexes at the Orsk refinery. They include a 1.2 million mt/year delayed coker and a gasoline dewaxer with 600,000 mt/year capacity. It also plans an upgrade of the hydrocracker complex and the isomerization unit which would increase their productivity by more than 15%. The hydrocracker is set for launch in Q3 2022. The refinery's depth of processing will increase from 76.7% to 98.1% by 2022-2023. Separately the refinery is building a new unit for hydrotreatment of distillate products from the delayed coker unit. The unit can also be used for hydrodesulfurization of diesel from the primary processing units.

** Russia's Angarsk has started assembling the main column at the catalytic cracker complex. The assembly of the column is part of the refinery's upgrade. The GK-3 unit is aimed to process 130 mt/hr vacuum gasoil and 520 mt/hr desalted crude oil will produce over 43 components.

** Lummus Technology has been awarded a contract for two proprietary heaters that will be part of Russia's Kirishi upgrade. The heaters will be used "in the conversion of heavy oil residues, which would otherwise end up in fuels, to valuable lighter products," it said in a statement. The company's delayed coking heaters "can handle a wide range of feedstocks in refineries and upgraders for both fuel and specialty coke production." The award is complimentary to a delayed coking technology license awarded by the KINEF refinery in Kirishi to CLG, a joint venture between Chevron and Lummus, in 2018.

** Russia's Afipsky refinery has started to assemble the pressure pipelines in its hydrocracker complex. The deadline for completion of that part of the work is March 2022. Work is underway on the two most important parts of the complex -- the hydrocracking unit and the sulfur production unit. According to the Krasnodar regional administration, the hydrocracker is due for completion in 2023. Separately, the Afipsky refinery is planning the construction of a 1.6 million mt/year delayed coker. Safmar Group is reorganizing two of its refineries by merging the Krasnodar refinery to the Afipsky refinery in southern Russia. It aims to complete the process by the end of summer 2021 and will thereby retain the name Afipsky refinery. The Krasnodar refinery will specialize in primary processing and the Afipsky refinery in secondary processing.

** Russian oil company Lukoil started the construction of a polypropylene unit at its refinery near Nizhny Novgorod, also known as Norsi and Kstovo. The unit will use feedstock from the two upgraded FCC units with 4 million mt/year capacity. Nizhny Novgorod is completing the construction of a deep processing complex. It is due to be launched in the autumn and will allow the refinery to reduce fuel oil output by 2.6 million mt/year and increase 10 ppm diesel output by 700,000 mt/year. The refinery's depth of processing will reach 97% and the light products yield 74%. As a result of the launch, Lukoil's refineries' fuel oil output will be less than 4% and light products yield 75%. The deep processing complex includes a 2.110 million mt/year delayed coker; a diesel and gasoline hydrotreater, with 1.5 million mt/yr capacity; a hydrogen unit, with 50,000 Nm3/hour capacity; a gas fractionation unit, with 425,000 mt/year capacity; and a sulfur unit, with 81,000 mt/year capacity.

** Russia's Yanos refinery in Yaroslavl has started building a delayed coker complex. As a result it will fully halt fuel oil output. Its depth of processing will exceed 99% and light products yield -- 70%. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2024. The complex will be built in two stages -- initially a delayed coker will be built which will enable the processing of more than 3.4 million mt heavy fractions, followed by a naphtha hydrotreater and light gasoil coker. They will provide feedstock for gasoline and diesel.

** Russia's Achinsk refinery will increase its depth of processing to over 95% and the light products yield to 88% upon completion of its upgrades, which will lead to the almost complete halt of fuel oil output. It is building a hydrocracker with integrated hydrotreater. Its launch will enable it to almost double the output of motor fuel aimed at covering domestic demand predominantly in Siberia and the Far East. It is also building a delayed coker complex.

** Russia's Ilsky is planning to launch a new gasoline complex, including a 1.5 million mt/year CCR and isomerization units, around the second half of 2023 which will enable it to produce high-octane gasoline components and gasoline meeting Euro 5 standards, LPG and xylenes. After launching the gasoline complex, it aims to start building a diesel hydrotreater, with construction likely to be completed in 2024.

** Uzbekistan's Bukhara will use Honeywell UOP technology to increase crude conversion and produce Euro-5 standard gasoline and diesel. Honeywell will provide "licensing and basic engineering design services" for a new naphtha hydrotreating, RFCC, SelectFining and Merox units. The existing diesel hydrotreater will be revamped. Uzbekneftegaz has decided to proceed with an upgrade of its Bukhara and Fergan refineries and put on hold building a new refinery in the Jizzakh region.

Uzbekistan's Fergan refinery between 2020-2023 aims to commission hydrocracking process in a staggered way which will allow it to produce Euro-5 regular gasoline 92 RON as well as diesel.

** Russia's Rosneft is working towards launching the hydrocrackers that it has built at four of its refineries -- Achinsk, Komsomolsk, Novokuybishev and Tuapse.

Rosneft is expanding the capacity of its existing delayed coker at Novokuybishev. Rosneft plans to complete its refinery modernization program by 2025.

The program includes construction and reconstruction of over 50 units, with work on more than 30 of the units having been finished.

** Kyrgyzneftegaz plans to upgrade its Jalal-Abad refinery. Its strategy involves a unit for secondary processing of fuel oil.

** Kazakhstan's Pavlodar refinery is looking to build a unit for the purification of LPG and has selected a Merox technology.

** The launch of four secondary units at the Mariisky refinery has been delayed. As per plans, after upgrades it expects to increase the AT-2's capacity to 1.4 million mt/year from 900,000 mt/year and the VDU capacity to 1 million mt/year from 476,000 mt/year.

** The next stage of upgrades at the Antipinsky refinery in Russia involves increasing the capacity of crude and refined product pipelines. Antipinsky, which can process 9 million-9.5 million mt/year of crude, currently receives 7.5 million mt/year of crude.

** A delayed coker will be installed at the Turkmenbashi refining complex in Turkmenistan.

Launches

Existing entries

** Russia's Rosneft could launch a planned new refinery as part of its VNHK (East petrochemical complex) in the Far East in 2029 and a petrochemical plant in 2026. In August 2020, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Rosneft has shelved a plan to build a new refinery and petrochemical complex in the Far East due to changes in taxation, but can resume the project provided profitability can be guaranteed. Meanwhile, at a new meeting with Russia's President, Sechin said that one of the factors for carrying out the Far East project would be taking measures for stimulating the production of ethane and LPG. The Far East refinery is planned to process 12 million mt/year of crude, while the petrochemical plant will have 3.4 million mt capacity. The production will include 1.8 million mt gasoline, 6.3 million mt diesel and 4.5 million petrochemical products annually.

** A new refinery is planned to be launched in Georgia, at the Black Sea port of Kulevi, in 2024.

Construction of the 4 million mt/year plant is due to start in 2021. The refinery is expected to have 98% depth of processing and produce Euro 5 and 6 gasoline and diesel and thus reduce Georgia's import needs for oil products by 15%-20%.

** Russia's Khabarovsk refinery plans to build a second phase to the plant close to the existing site. The second phase would double the refinery's capacity to 10 million mt/year, and aims to cover gasoline demand in the far east of Russia. The company is seeking an investor in the Asia-Pacific for the second phase, which includes an FCC, hydrotreater and delayed coker.