LONG DELAYED SOVIET REFINERY STARTS UP

The U.S.S.R. has commissioned its first grassroots refinery in more than 6 years. Start-up of the plant, near Chardzhou on the Amu Darya river in Southeast Turkmenistan (Soviet Central Asia), has been long delayed-more than 15 years. Even now the Chardzhou refinery is capable of producing only mazut (heavy fuel oil) and diesel fuel. Gasoline production is slated to begin "shortly." First 60,000 b/d phase of the Chardzhou refinery originally was scheduled to go on stream in 1975. But work on

Nov. 18, 1991

2 min read

The U.S.S.R. has commissioned its first grassroots refinery in more than 6 years.

Start-up of the plant, near Chardzhou on the Amu Darya river in Southeast Turkmenistan (Soviet Central Asia), has been long delayed-more than 15 years. Even now the Chardzhou refinery is capable of producing only mazut (heavy fuel oil) and diesel fuel.

Gasoline production is slated to begin "shortly."

First 60,000 b/d phase of the Chardzhou refinery originally was scheduled to go on stream in 1975. But work on the foundation for the primary distillation unit didn't begin until 1978.

Soviet authorities postponed the refinery's start-up date to the mid-1980s, then to "no later than 1990."

The Chardzhou refinery is designed to operate on western Siberian crude delivered through a long pipeline running from Omsk through Pavlodar and Chimkent. The Chimkent refinery in Southeast Kazakhstan started up early in 1985, 15 years after groundbreaking. It was the last Soviet grassroots refinery commissioned before Chardzhou.

Areas besides Turkmenistan that will receive products from the Chardzhou plant include Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan, Kyrgystan, and southern Kazakhstan. Like many other regions of the U.S.S.R., these areas have severe hydrocarbon fuel shortages, the Moscow newspaper Pravda reported.

Economic viability of the Chardzhou plant is clouded by prospects that the cost of the Russian Republic's western Siberian crude will be increased sharply next year. With western Siberian oil production plummeting since 1988, the Chardzhou refinery likely will have to bid for limited crude supplies against other Soviet refineries as well as foreign customers offering hard currency.

The U.S.S.R. has a total of 40-47 refineries, the number depending on how units at some major plants are counted.

Chardzhou apparently will increase Soviet primary distillation capacity to about 11.7 million b/d.