Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 05 2022

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Gazprom Neft starts up new

refining unit in Omsk

RUSSIA GAZPROM Neft has begun commissioning the range of products that it produces. As part
tests at a new diesel hydrotreating and dewaxing of this programme, Gazprom Neft commis-
It is one of several new unit at its oil refinery in Omsk, the company said sioned a new hydrocracking unit at the plant in
unit launches at the last week. the second quarter of last year. It alo completed
Omsk refinery. The unit enables Gazprom Neft to reduce the modernisation and commissioning work at a
sulphur content of diesel and make the fuel sus- catalytic reforming unit last December.
tainable for use at temperatures as low as minus The commissioning of these new units should
40 degrees Celsuis. The Omsk refinery will bring the plant’s refining depth to close to 100%.
shortly produce a trial batch of the fuel. It is already one of the most sophisticated refin-
Gazprom Neft invested RUB17.5bn eries operating in Russia. Some of these invest-
($230mn) in the project, which involved Rus- ments are supported by subsidies provided by
sian equipment suppliers Volgogradneftemash, the Russian government.
Izhorskiye Zavody and Uralkhimmash. Gazprom Neft’s other refinery in Moscow is
The Omsk refinery, which can process over undergoing similar upgrades. In June last year,
450,000 barrels per day of oil, is undergoing a the company hired Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas to
staged modernisation programme, aimed at oversee the construction of a delayed coking unit
improving its refining depth and expanding at the site. ™

Rosneft signs Ryazan

cracker contract

RUSSIA ROSNEFT has signed a €1.1bn ($1.2bn) contract Rosneft and its Russian oil peers have been
with Italy’s Maire Tecnimont for the construc- investing for years in expanded production of
The new unit will tion of a 2.2mn-tonne vacuum gas oil (VGO) lighter fuels, shifting away from less valuable
improve the refinery's hydrocracking unit at its refinery in Ryazan, the products such as fuel oil. But an oil taxation
margin to $38 per Russian firm said last week. system that deters investment in downstream
tonne, according to Rosneft revealed its plan for the Ryazan upgrades has hindered progress. The govern-
VTBC. upgrade last year, when it agreed preliminary ment has recently taken steps to address this
terms with Maire Tecnimont. The cracker could with the introduction of a negative oil excise tax,
raise production of light and middle distil- effectively a subsidy, as well as adjustments to the
late products by 2mn tonnes, including 0.5mn so-called damper mechanism that encourages
tonnes of gasoline, analysts at VTB Capital refiners to invest more in projects that ramp up
(VTBC) estimate. domestic supply of motor fuels.™
The Ryazan refinery is capable of process-
ing 18mn tonnes (260,000 barrels per day) of
crude, but handled only 13.2mn tonnes in 2021.
VTBC estimates that adding the new unit could
improve the plant’s margin to $38 per tonne from
$21 per tonne at present, assuming an average oil
price of $67 per barrel over the next three years.
“This project is not incorporated into our
model, so we see upside risks to our capex fore-
casts for the company in the coming years,”
VTBC said. “However, we note that the current
regulatory environment (with a negative crude
excise and damper) provides notable support
to the profitability of the downstream. Still, we
treat the news as not market moving for Rosneft’s
shares, as the market is not fully trading on fun-
damentals at the moment.”

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 05 02•February•2022