OREANDA-NEWS. November 8, 2010. In the course of his official visit to the Republic of Tatarstan Dmitry Medvedev, President of Russia, visited the site of the Complex of refineries and petrochemical plants in Nizhnekamsk.

During his visit to the Republic President of Russia was accompanied by Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Igor Sechin, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergey Shmatko, Minister of Economics of the Russian Federation, Oleg Morozov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, as well as several heads of ministries and departments of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tatarstan.

The first facility visited was the TANECO Complex of refineries and petrochemical plants being constructed in Nizhnekamsk, which is a subsidiary of OJSC  TATNEFT. In the central control room of the Complex Shafagat Takhautdinov, General Director of OJSC  TATNEFT, and Hamza Bagmanov, General Director of TANECO, told about the progress of the construction. Later Dmitry Medvedev and his entourage could observe on-line through the monitors located in the control room commissioning of CDU / VDU-7 installation in the start-up and commissioning mode.

President of the Russian Federation congratulated the staff teams and the management of OJSC  TATNEFT and OJSC  TANECO with the start of the Complex operation expressing his confidence, that "future work will continue in the same consistent manner and its results will inevitably affect the potential of the Republic and the State as a whole". The President also spoke to workers and professionals of TANECO Complex.

The project being implemented has allowed creating a powerful synergistic effect in adjacent areas of the economy: transport, construction industry and in the social area. According to the experts’ evaluation about 25-30 thousand of workers and specialists from different regions of the Russian Federation were involved in the construction at various stages of the complex building. More than 800 pieces of equipment were involved and the investments amounted to 170 billion rubles. More than two thousand domestic manufacturers provided for 70% of deliveries acting as suppliers of equipment and materials.

The installations of the first starting complex are planned to produce gasoline, heating oil, technical kerosene, liquefied gases, vacuum gas oil, industrial fuel oil and sulfur.

Concurrently with the commissioning of the TANECO’s first stage a project phase is on the way to deepen the oil conversion at the account of constructing the hydrocracking facility with production of lubricating oils. As of today, the main process equipment of the installation has been mounted: two unique reactors weighing more than 1,200 tons each manufactured for the first time in Russia by OMZ Izhorskiye Zavody Group. Completion of the project implementation envisages yielding of 18 kinds of high value added products of oil refining, including motor fuels of Euro-5 standard.

One of the main priorities of the Complex of refineries and petrochemical plants is its environmental orientation. Inherent design solutions, application of the world's proven technologies and equipment allow minimizing impact on the environment. There is also provided a multi-level system of continuous environmental monitoring. It is planned to spend 27 billion rubles for the construction of TANECO environmental facilities (17 billion rubles for the first starting complex).

Implementation of the large-scale project has resulted in development of an integrated engineering and management potential represented by OJSC  TATNEFT, OJSC  TANECO, OJSC  VNIPIneft, OOO Neftegazinzhiniring, Kamaglavstroy Management Company and Tatintek Management Company.

The same day, Dmitry Medvedev visited Naberezhnye Chelny, visited the Scientific and Research Center of OJSC  KAMAZ and chaired a meeting of the Commission on Modernization and Technological Development of the Russian economy.

Implementation of the "Complex of refineries and petrochemical plants” project was started in 2005 with the aim of developing a new phase of the oil refining industry of Tatarstan. The construction was initiated by the Government of the Republic and TATNEFT Company.

OJSC  TATNEFT is a main investor and a project coordinator; TANECO is a customer; the leading Russian design institute VNIPIneft is a general designer; "Neftegazinzhiniring” Company of Kamaglavstroy Management Company is a general contractor and Zenit Bank is a financial consultant.

Since the beginning of the construction TATNEFT Company has funded 170 billion rubles (including VAT) from its own funds and borrowed corporate loans.

Construction of the Complex is carried out in accordance with:

- principal provisions of the “Russian Energy Strategy 2020 ";

- instruction of the Russian Federation President dated April 26, 2007 to increase volumes of oil refining in the country;

- Program for Development of the petrochemical complex of the Republic of Tatarstan for 2004-2008 and 2010-2014;

- decision of the Security Council of the Republic of Tatarstan dated June 9, 2005.

The project's key objective is to provide high-tech, efficient and environmentally friendly oil processing with yielding competitive available hydrocarbon production.

The contracts with 11 licensors from 6 countries have been concluded for application of various oil refining processes at the Complex. Domestic development of Oil Refining and Petrochemical Institute (Ufa) has been applied for the tar visbreaking technology.

Project parameters:

- feed capacity is 7 million tons per year

- conversion depth is 97 % (72 in the Russian Federation)

- Nelson index, characterizing the complexity of the technology, is 15 (3 to 8 in the Russian Federation)

- site land-to-building ratio (396 hectares) is 61% (52% in the Russian Federation)

The project enjoys a federal status and is being implemented within the system of public - private partnership. TATNEFT Company has been approved to co-finance the following external facilities of the Complex of refineries and petrochemical plants infrastructure:

- pipeline - 118.2 km (new construction)

- product pipeline - 188 km (reconstruction)

- railway transport - 39,6 km (new construction)

Totally, the Investment Fund of the Russian Federation has allocated 16.512 billion rubles for the development of the external infrastructure of the Complex. The works on the oil pipeline and the product pipeline have been completed as of today, and the works on the railway infrastructure are under completion.

A specific feature of TANECO construction is simultaneous performance of design and construction works. Leading domestic design institutes (VNIPIneft, NizhegorodNIInefteproekt, GUP INHP RB, TatNIPIneft, etc.) have taken part in carrying out the detailed design.

The first Complex consisting of four processing units (CDU / VDU-7, naphtha stabilization block, tar visbreaking and sulfur production), off-site facilities and off-site networks, has been selected for the purpose of advanced commissioning of individual works of the refinery.

Since the early days of the Complex construction TATNEFT has been solving the social support issues simultaneously with the production related activities. 16 apartment houses with total area of 135,000 square meters, a kindergarten for 280 children and a modern sanatorium-preventorium for 140 beds have been built for workers and professionals involved in the project.