OREANDA-NEWS. August 06, 2014. As part of works on finishing construction of Tikhoretsk-Tuapse-2 long-distance pipeline, including building of the engineer protection equipment on mountain tract of the pipeline and on the head tract of the pipeline, after finalizing a complex under oil test, the crude charge to Tuapse refinery on 0-185 km site has been commenced, in accordance with the project. At the moment the preparation to Tikhoretsk-Tuapse-2 long-distance pipeline commissioning and putting into service is under way.

The project of amplifying flow capacity of long-distance pipelines system by means of building 247 km-long Tikhoretsk-Tuapse-2 oil pipeline is aimed at providing transportation of necessary amount of crude product for Rosneft Tuapse refinery, situated at the seashore of Black Sea.

As a result of Rosneft large-scale investment program on fundamental reconstruction of Tuapse refinery, the refining enterprise capacity will increase up to 12 mln tons of oil a year, the refinery yield will exceed 98%, Nelson Complexity Index will reach 9, overcoming average analogous performance of refineries in Western Europe. The enterprise will produce a wide range of oil products, meeting high ecological demands, the level of ecological and production safety will grow significantly.

The enterprise modernization is carried out in three stages. In December of previous year the first stage was completed, which included commissioning of the most high-capacity Russian crude oil distillation plant ELOU-AVT-12, and such large-scale objects as crude oil and oil products parks, central laboratory, fire station, pumping station of light oil products and a number of other off-plot facilities. When second-stage objects are commissioned, the refinery will start output of gasoline, diesel Euro-5 fuel and aviation kerosene. The third stage of construction provides for putting into operation a flexicoking unit, aimed at advanced refining of petroleum residues. It will enable the enterprise to maximize the oil refinery yield.

In the course of building Tuapse refinery more than a half of million tons of concrete steel constructions and 55 thousand tons of metal constructions were used, and more than 350 km of technologic pipelines were run. The preference, all conditions being equal, was given to production and equipment of domestic manufacturers. Totally, Russian equipment suppliers had more than 50% of orders.

The modernization of Tuapse refinery will enable the Company to meet the growing needs in high quality motor fuels of Southern Russia. Moreover, taking into account the Company’s specific geographical location and transshipment capacity in Tuapse, it will increase the possibilities of crude oil export alternatives.