PJSC Tatneft, Almetyevsk, Russia, has wrapped a previously announced 3-week turnaround at the more than 10 million-tonnes/year refinery of subsidiary JSC Taneco’s multiphase integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Nizhnekamsk, 250 km from Tatarstan’s capital city of Kazan (OGJ Online, June 11, 2020).
The turnaround—which began on June 10—was completed 4 days ahead of schedule, and all units impacted by the scheduled maintenance event have now resumed normal operations, Tatneft said on July 9.
The turnaround involved about 20 types of works aimed at increasing safety, reliability, and efficiency of operations at the refinery’s 2.4 million-tpy sulfur dioxide (SO2) visbreaking unit and 2 million-tpy vacuum distillation unit.
Major projects completed at the two units included the following:
- Technical inspection of 190 shut-off valves.
- Technical inspection of 266 instrumentation and automation controls.
- Technical inspection of and engineering certification for 21 pipelines and 43 unidentified devices.
- Technical inspection of pump-and-compressor, tubing equipment.
- Hydromechanical and hydrojet cleaning of process deposits from 7.98 km of tube-furnace coils and transfer lines.
- Replacement of vacuum column nozzles.
Ahead of the turnaround, Tatneft confirmed Taneco’s procedures for executing planned maintenance would enable process units not involved in overhaul activities would maintain normal operations to ensure product yields per the refinery’s approved production plan.
