MOSCOW – Rosneft has increased capacity at its Novokuibyshevsk lubricants blending plant to 340,000 metric tons per year, making it one of the largest in Europe, industry sources confirmed at an energy meeting last month.
The blending plant upgrade technology is developed by I.S.T Molchtechnik, a German engineering and design company, the meeting heard last month. We installed our technology in Novokuibyshevsk in two phases, Eduard Graf told Global Business Clubs CIS Fuels and Lubricants conference held here May 22.
The first phase was ready in 2008; the second phase was done last year. At this moment the plants total capacity is 340,000 t/y, he said during a questions and answers session at the meeting. Hamburg, Germany-based Graf is Molchtechniks Russia and CIS sales director.
After an additional 50,000 tons capacity modernization was implemented in 2008, the plant reached total capacity of 100,000 t/y. Half of this upgrade was a low and medium-tonnage automatic lubricant production [system], while the other half [used] an old method of large-tonnage lubricant blending and filling production, Graf told Lube Report during a separate conversation.
Rosnefts Novokuibyshevsk refinery finished its oils and additives plant technical modernization in September 2012. That brought the plants total lubricants production capacity to 340,000 t/y, said Graf.
Molchtechniks partner in Russia is INKhP, an Ufa-based state petrochemical institute. This plant can produce up to 100 different types of products with formulations of up to seven components. It can also ship different sizes of containers from 1 to 50 liters and [intermediate bulk containers] of 1,000 liters, said Dinar Safarov, INKhPs project department director, during the meeting.
The plant in Novokuibyshevsk is equipped with the German technology that includes developed and patented pigging and manifold systems, according to the institute. It also features a drum decanting unit, simultaneous metering blender, filling and discharge units, and pipeline fittings.
Developer Samaraneftekhimproekt was involved in the Novokuibyshevsk lube plants first upgrade phase, while the Moscow project institute Kombit participated in the plants second upgrade phase, according to Graf. The plants full capacity is operational since last September and we are expecting Rosneft to officially announce the upgrade very soon, he said.
By press time, Rosneft didnt respond to Lube Reports calls to confirm the plants second upgrade and subsequent startup. In 2010 the company stated that it planned to invest around 14 billion rubles (U.S. $432 million) in modernization of the Novokuibyshevsk lubricants and base oil production.
Together with INKhP, Molchtechnik is implementing a similar technology in Gazprom Nefts Omsk lubricant complex.
The Novokuibyshevsk refinery also features a 200,000 t/y API Group I base oil plant, which is slated for a 400,000 Group II/III base oil production upgrade/expansion by 2015. Rosneft operates two more lubricant production facilities – a 300,000 t/y Group I base oil plant in Angarsk, in Russia’s Far East, and Nefteprodukt, a specialty lubricant plant in Moscow.
In 2012 the Novokuibyshevsk refinery produced 386,000 tons of base oils and finished products, or almost 90 percent of Rosneft’s total lubricants production, the company said. The plant sells its products in 49 Russian cities and regions, while 29 percent of its production is exported to Germany, Poland, Ukraine Finland, Hungary and the three Baltic countries – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
After Lukoil, Moscow-based Rosneft is the countrys second largest lubricants marketer. In 2011 it produced 468,000 tons of lubricants and base oils, and held a 20 percent share of the Russian lubricants market, according to the Moscow-based InfoTek consultancy.