PetroKazakhstan Oil Products LLP (PKOP), a joint venture of state-owned KazMunaiGas and China National Petroleum Corp., has undertaken a scheduled shutdown of its 5.25 million-tonne/year Shymkent refinery in Kazakhstan to execute works related to the ongoing modernization of the manufacturing site (OGJ Online, Jan. 31, 2014).
Initiated on Apr. 10, the turnaround will include preventative maintenance projects to ensure continued reliability of existing equipment as well as works aimed at implementation of new installations at the refinery’s new residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) complex, PKOP said.
Upgrades and new installations to be implemented during the turnaround come as part of the second phase of PKOP’s modernization program at Shymkent, which alongside construction of the RFCC complex, aims to increase the refinery’s crude processing capacity to 6 million tpy (OGJ Online, Sept. 27, 2012).
PKOP wrapped Phase 1 of Shymkent’s modernization in 2017 with commissioning of a new 600,000-tpy naphtha isomerization unit to enable production of Euro 4 and Euro 5-quality fuels and reduce environmental impacts by enhancing the high-octane gasoline production process to meet the latest requirements set by Kazakhstan law (OGJ Online, July 3, 2017).
Phase 1 projects also included reconstruction of the refinery’s existing diesel hydrotreater as well as construction of a sulfur treatment plant.
Phase 2 of the refinery modernization is scheduled to be completed during third-quarter 2018, PKOP said.
Initiated in 2014, the refinery modernization comes as part of Kazakstan’s plan to increase production of light, high-quality fuels to meet increased domestic demand and help reduce the country’s dependence on foreign fuel imports.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
