Tyumen completes construction of catalytic cracking unit

Tyumen Oil Co. hosted a grand opening ceremony Friday for a $100 million catalytic cracking unit in its Ryazan oil refinery 120 miles southeast of Moscow.

Nov. 9, 2001

2 min read

By the OGJ Online Staff

HOUSTON, Nov. 9 -- Tyumen Oil Co. hosted a grand opening ceremony Friday for a $100 million catalytic cracking unit in its Ryazan oil refinery 120 miles southeast of Moscow.

Tyumen Oil officials said installation of the new unit was completed in record time with ABB Group unit ABB Lummus Global as general contractor.

The company used Western technology in the project to improve the quality of refined products and increase the refinery's throughput and efficiency, with a crude conversion rate increase to 68% from 59% previously. Officials said additional units will be built to increase conversion of crude to light petroleum products to 75% by the end of 2002 and to 82% by the end of 2003.

The refinery's current throughput capacity is 230,000 b/d but should increase to almost 300,000 b/d by 2003, said officials.

A series of Western banks, backed by guarantees from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, provided financing for the project.

"Completion of this project is important not only for Tyumen Oil, but for Russia, as well," said Simon Kukes, the firm's president and CEO. "It demonstrates that Russian companies can work very effectively to achieve their business goals, especially with foreign partners. The execution of such a large-scale refinery modernization in such a short period speaks to the high qualifications of our specialists and contractors and the excellent working relationships among all parties."

He stressed the strategic significance of refineries in Russia. "With crude oil pipelines in Russia unable to accommodate the growth in the country's oil production," Kukes said, "the additional output can go to refineries, where it can be processed into value-added products."

Tyumen Oil, established in 1995, is owned by the Russian Alfa Group and US-Russian Access-Renova. It has proven oil reserves of more than 8.2 billion bbl and produces more than 840,000 b/d of crude. Among Russian companies, it ranks second in reserves and fourth in production.

The company also owns and franchises a chain of nearly 1,000 branded retail gasoline stations in Russia.