Page 13 - FSUOGM Week 12

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
Moscow refinery boosts output with extra train
RUSSIA
The train will maintain current processing levels, which were due to drop by 120,000 bpd next month because of maintenance.
RUSSIA’S Gazprom Neft has brought on stream a new oil processing train with an annual capac- ity of 6mn tonnes per year (120,000 barrels per day) at its refinery in Moscow, sources told Reu- ters on March 19.
The unit entered operations on March 16 and will allow the 240,000 bpd plant to maintain cur- rent processing levels, which were due to drop by 12,000 bpd next month because of maintenance, according to the sources. The new train is due to ramp up to full capacity by 2021.
The Moscow refinery and Gazprom Neft’s larger 445,000 bpd refinery in Omsk are in the middle of a large-scale modernisation programme, aimed at boosting their low-sul- phur marine fuel output and phasing out pro- duction of mazut, a low-quality fuel oil, by 2023-2024.
Demand for high-sulphur fuel oil has plum- meted following the IMO’s introduction this
year of tougher restrictions on marine fuel emis- sions, while consumption of low-sulphur grades has risen. However, the head of Gazprom Neft’s marine bunkering division told Argus that the company still expected to continue selling some high-sulphur products for some time. These products are still in demand in some export mar- kets, he said, and will be shipped overseas from the port of Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea and possi- bly from Far Eastern ports that supply Asia-Pa- cific consumers.
Gazprom Neft also reported on March 19 that it had wrapped up the modernisation of a 3mn tpy diesel hydrotreatment unit at the Omsk refinery. The project, which cost RUB800mn ($10mn), will result in a 10% growth in the plant’s diesel output.
Next year the company aims to commission a new diesel hydrotreatment facility with a capac- ityof2.5mntpy.™
Gazprom Neft chalks up progress in the Arctic
RUSSIA
Arctic fields now account for 30% of Gazprom Neft’s production.
RUSSIA’S Gazprom Neft has reported progress at its projects beyond the Arctic Circle, which now account for around 30% of the state oil com- pany’s production.
At the Novoportovskoye oilfield on the Yamal Peninsula, output rose by 8% last year to 7.7mn tonnes (155,000 barrels per day), Gazprom Neft said, and should reach 160,000 bpd in 2020. Pro- duction is expected to plateau at 170,000 bpd at a later stage, the company has said before. This oil is loaded on to tankers at Gazprom Neft’s Arctic Gates terminal for export.
The company plans to commission a new processing complex at the field in 2022. After its launch, the producer will be able to process around 11bn cubic metres per year of associated petroleum gas (APG) and 5.1 bcm per year of dry gas, according to design documents approved in January. This gas will be pumped into Russia’s main gas transportation system via a pipeline Gazprom Neft is building across the Gulf of Ob.
Production at the East-Messoyakhskoye field, where Gazprom Neft is partnered with Rosneft, climbed over 22% in 2019 to 5.6mn tonnes of oil equivalent. The pair last year began full-scale development of the field’s deeper Achimov res- ervoirs, estimated to hold 35mn tonnes (257mn barrels) of oil reserves.
In 2020, the partners intend to commission a new compressor station and a 1.5 bcm per year pipeline, in order to pump gas from East Messoyakhskoye to the neighbouring, unde- veloped West-Messoyakhskoye field. Here the gas will be held in a new underground gas facility for future use, helping to limit flaring at East-Messoyakhskoye.
Gazprom Neft also operates Russia’s only offshore Arctic field to have entered production, Prirazlomnoye. Its oil output was stable last year at 3.14mn tonnes (63,000 bpd). The field cur- rently hosts 19 operational wells, but a further three will be added in 2020. ™
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