OREANDA-NEWS. Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, visited several enterprises in Nizhnekamsk, which are part of TATNEFT Group of Companies.

During the working visit Rustam Minnikhanov was accompanied by Boris Petrov, Head of the Volga Federal Service for Technological, Environmental and Nuclear Supervision, Shafagat Takhautdinov, General Director of JSC TATNEFT, Nail Maganov, First Deputy General Director of JSC TATNEFT, Chairman of the Board of Directors of TANECO, Aidar Metshin, Head of Nizhnekamsk Municipal District, and other officials.

The Head of the Republic began visiting the industrial facilities of the Company from the construction site of the combined hydrocracking installation. At present active construction and installation and commissioning works are under way here. Commissioning of the combined hydrocracking installation facilities is divided into two launching schemes. The first one includes 49 facilities

About three and a half thousand people are every day involved at the site of the combined hydrocracking installation. The amount of 11.5 billion rubles has been spent for installation and construction works at the site since the beginning of the construction.

A considerable amount of work on the installation of heavy-tonnage equipment was carried out in the summer and early fall of 2012. Piping equipment installation and installation of process piping are currently under way.

At "Nizhnekamsk CHP" Rustam Minnikhanov inspected the construction process of the facilities for electricity generation with application of low-potential steam turbines. "Nizhnekamsk CHP-2" was integrated in TATNEFT Group of Companies in 2010. Following the ongoing reconstruction the CHP design capacity will increase from 380 MW to 730 MW and electricity generation will increase from 1.688 billion kWh up to 5.055 billion kWh. Two new 110 megawatt turbines will be additionally put into operation. Two other turbines of 100 MW each, which currently can not be used will be demothballed. This electricity will be sufficient for both oil refining and oil producing facilities of the Company.

In addition to increasing the capacity, JSC TATNEFT also supports another area of "Nizhnekamsk CHP" modernization: use of coke as a fuel, which will be formed in the deep oil processing at the Nizhnekamsk Oil Refining and Petrochemical Plants Complex. This will not only provide for the integration of "Nizhnekamsk CHP" and "TANECO", but also for the implementation of the closed cycle strategy, including production and processing of oil, as well as electricity and heat energy generation for the whole technological process of JSC TATNEFT.

The President held a meeting at the end of the visit. A report on the progress of the industrial activities, completion construction and comprehensive facilities testing of the Starting Complex 1A1 was presented by Leonid Alekhin, General Director of JSC "TANEKO". He pointed out that all in all more than 11 million tons of oil had been processed since the beginning of the equipment comprehensive testing. Production of light petroleum products has amounted to no less than 50 percent, while the depth of processing has been at least 73.1 percent since July 2012.

The information on the progress of implementing the Phase 1B project was presented to the audience by Nikolay Zaikin, Head of the Construction Projects Department of JSC TATNEFT. He presented general information of the construction and installation works at the combined hydrocracking installation and at specific facilitiy sites of the combined hydrocracking installation.

After discussing the current situation, Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, set the tasks primarily related to the timely completion of the planned construction and installation works at the combined hydrocracking installation site. He emphasized that the professionals of JSC TANECO, who will be involved in the equipment operation must today work closely with builders and representatives of the commissioning organizations. The President also pointed out the importance of works carried out at Nizhnekamsk CHP today stating that the plant modernization is continuation of the overall TANECO Complex project.

"In general, - Rustam Minnikhanov summed - systematic and planned work is under way today. All challenges arising are resolved in the regular course of work".