Lukoil’s Kstovo refinery finishing work on new deep conversion complex

April 6, 2022
PJSC Lukoil subsidiary LLC Lukoil Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez is nearing completion of the operator’s long-planned deep conversion, delayed coking complex at its 17-million tonne/year Kstovo refinery in central Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region.

PJSC Lukoil subsidiary LLC Lukoil Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez (NNOS) is nearing completion of the operator’s long-planned deep conversion, delayed coking complex at its 17-million tonne/year (tpy) Kstovo refinery in central Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region (OGJ Online, Mar. 24, 2021).

NNOS is currently finishing related construction works for the new 2.11-million tpy delayed coking plant, which once in operation, will increase he refinery’s overall product yield to 97%, with yield of light products reaching 74%, Lukoil said on Apr. 6.

Lukoil did not disclose a specific timeline for when it plans to officially commission the new plant, which previously was scheduled for startup in fourth-quarter 2021 (OGJ Online, June 18, 2021).

Separately, Lukoil also said NNOS is continuing to prepare design documentation for its earlier announced plan to add a new polypropylene complex at the Kstovo refinery. Upon formally breaking construction groundwork for the project last July, Lukoil said the planned polypropylene complex will process a feedstock of propylene supplied by the refinery’s two existing catalytic crackers to produce 500,000-tpy of product for other plastic manufacturers in the region (OGJ online, July 22, 2021).

Further details regarding the proposed petrochemical complex, however, have yet to be disclosed.

Deep conversion complex overview

Alongside its primary 2.11-million tpy delayed coker, Lukoil has said the new Nizhny Novgorod deep conversion complex also will include the following major units:

  • A 1.5-million tpy combined diesel fuel and gasoline hydrotreater.
  • A 50,000-cu m/hr hydrogen production unit.
  • A 425,000-tpy gas fractionator.
  • An 81,000-tpy combined elemental sulfur-sulfuric acid production unit.
About the Author

Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor

Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.