Kuban Oil & Gas Co. has let a contract to Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS), a division of Honeywell International Inc., to provide advanced automated control and safety systems at the 1.5 million-tonne/year AT-5 crude distillation unit (CDU) of subsidiary Ilsky Refinery LLC’s refinery in the Seversky district of Russia’s Krasnodar Territory.
The Russian independent refiner has completed implementation of HPS’s proprietary Experion HS process automation system, which includes a subset of components from the Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) distributed control system specifically packaged to provide a targeted and robust system for small-to-medium automation projects, Honeywell said.
Tailored to the meet requirements of the AT-5 CDU to enable control and monitoring systems to operate with enhanced stability and reliability, the Ilsky refinery’s Experion HS platform includes the following:
• An efficient engineering environment that features applications to allow for enhanced human-machine interface.
• Remote control and monitoring capability.
• Flexible access for data collection.
Alongside technology licensing, HPS also supplied the refinery a complete set of services for building an integrated production control system based on Honeywell’s hybrid HC900 controllers, the service provider said.
A value of the contract was not disclosed.
Refinery overview
Initially built as a small bitumen plant to provide materials for local road construction, the Ilsky manufacturing site began a series of reconstruction and new construction works in 2001 as part of a plan to boost crude oil processing capacity in the region.
Designed to upgrade operations for increased production of bitumen as well as straight-run motor fuels, the phased overhaul resulted in the refinery’s current configuration, which includes the following:
• 120,000-tpy AT-1 CDU; commissioned in 2002.
• 300,000-tpy AT-2 CDU; commissioned in 2007.
• 300,000-tpy AT-3 CDU; commissioned in 2009.
• 300,000-tpy AT-4 CDU; commissioned in 2010.
In 2013, Ilsky Refinery completed construction of AT-5 CDU, which is equipped to process a blend of low-sulfur feedstock with sour Urals crude.
The company also plans to add an AT-6 CDU, which currently remains in the design stage, Ilsky Refinery said.
Alongside completing a series of major infrastructure projects intended to enable increased processing at the complex, Ilsky Refinery also has purchased property adjacent to its current operations for a four-phased construction and upgrading project in accord with basic provisions of a quadripartite agreement on modernization of Russia’s oil processing industry between oil companies; the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation; the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision (Rostechnadzor); and the Federal Agency for Technical Regulating and Metrology (Rosstandart) to reequip and upgrade oil processing capacities at Russian Federation refineries (OGJ Online, June 1, 2016).
The project to build and upgrade Il’sky refinery provides for the establishment on the basis of the existing refinery plant complex for deep processing of crude oil, allowing to increase refining depth to a value of not less than 95% and to ensure output, fully meeting the requirements of modern European standards (Euro 5).
As part of the 2011 agreement, Ilsky Refinery will add a deep conversion plant at the refinery to increase its refining depth to no less than 95% as well as to ensure fuel production from the site conforms to Euro 5-quality standards by 2022.
Due to be completed in 2022, the deep conversion plant will include the following processing capabilities:
• Middle-distillate hydrocracking and vacuum gas oil hydrotreating using technology licensed by Honeywell subsidiary UOP LLC.
• Hydrogen production using technology licensed by Linde AG.
• Gas fractionation using technology licensed by Lengiproneftekhim LLC.
• Sulfur recovery using technology licensed by Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
• Reforming, isomerization, gasoline hydrotreating, and delayed coking, licensing for all of which remains outstanding.
The company plans to expand overall crude processing capacity at the refinery to 5-6 million tpy by conclusion of the project.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].