OREANDA-NEWS. On September 09, 2008 RN-Tuapsenefteproduct, a marketing subsidiary of Rosneft in the south of Russia, put into operation a new railroad loading rack for petroleum products with a capacity of 5 million tonnes per year in addition to the two existing racks, reported the press-centre of Rosneft.

Construction of the rack which cost 1.5 bln. rubles (about USD 60 mln.) was executed within a major project of RN-Tuapsenefteproduct and Tuapse refinery upgrade. The new rack is able to service 60 railroad tank cars simultaneously and it is equipped with a special loading system for different grades of Jet fuel, the production of which will start after the termination of some upgrade works at the Tuapse refinery. The main advantage of the whole rack complex is full automation of loading processes.

RN-Tuapsenefteproduct development program also envisages construction of a deepwater pier at the Tuapse terminal with a transhipment capacity of 7 mln. tonnes of petroleum products per year. It is also planned to upgrade the four existing piers and to increase reservoir volume from 360,000 to 550,000 cubic meters. All these works will result in the increase of RN-Tuapsenefteproduct transhipment capacity to 17 mln. tonnes per year by 2010.

 “We have managed to reduce construction period of the rack by one third from 18 to 12 months thanks to the well organised construction operations. The upgrade of RN-Tuapsenefteproduct capacities is effected without any supply disruptions or production suspension.

These are unique operations which are only possible thanks to perfect coordination of all business units and subcontractors”, — Alexander Yarovenko, director of RN-Tuapsenefteproduct, said.