Major equipment for the second stage of modernization of the Gazprom Neft Omsk Refinery has been delivered to Omsk.
The equipment (which includes distillation, atmospheric and absorption columns, coking chambers, twinned heat interchangers and reactors and separators together totalling 6,000 tonnes in weight) has been produced by Russian equipment manufacturers Volgogradneftemash and Izhorskiye Zavodi, and is to be used in the construction of new production facilities — a crude oil distillation unit (CDU) and a deep refining complex — at the company’s Omsk Refinery, projects being implemented by Gazprom Neft as part of the second phase of the modernisation of the company’s refining facilities, directed at increasing refining depth and yield of light petroleum products.
Delivery from Volgograd and St Petersburg to Omsk has required the development of a comprehensive logistics strategy involving the transportation of the equipment, in stages, by sea and river transport. Equipment produced at the JSC Volgogradneftemash plant was transported along the Volga, through the Rybinsk Reservoir, and through Lake Onezhskoye and Lake Ladoga, with the second leg of the route running through the Baltic, North and Norwegian Seas, as well as part of the Northern Sea Route, to the Gulf of Ob.
The third (and final) stage involved the transportation of the oversized cargo on six barges from Novy Port to Omsk via the Ob and Irtysh rivers. The total distance covered in transporting the equipment was over 9,000 kilometres.
The Russian-produced equipment delivered to Omsk was supplied pre-assembled, with a docking and transhipment complex designed and constructed specifically to receive the equipment at Irtysh. Thanks to its size — the length of the dock running to 80 metres, with a width of 15.5 metres — together with a reinforced base, the new facility is able to accept loads of up to 1,000 tonnes in a single delivery. Offloading the equipment onshore involved modern mobile hydraulic lifting equipment, obviating the need for cranes, with a special access road built to allow the transportation of equipment at construction sites throughout the Omsk Refinery.
Oleg Belyavsky, General Director at the Gazprom Neft Omsk Refinery, commented: “The major projects involved in the second phase of modernisation are directed at improving efficiency in refining processes. The projects to be implemented in the next few years will allow us to increase refining depth at the Omsk Refinery to that of the best refineries in the world. The use of cutting-edge technologies makes possible not only the production of oil products to the highest environmental standards, but also minimises environmental impacts.
Altogether, by implementing the second phase of the modernization programme, and introducing significantly different environmental and workplace safety standards, the commissioning of these new technological facilities will see environmental impacts drop by 28 percent.”