Rosneft began handling and installing oversize equipment at its Kuibyshev, Syzran, Achinsk, Komsomolsk and Angarsk refineries in early December, following the unique transport operations, one of which was noted in the Russian and European Books of Records as the longest-ever automotive transportation (to 203 km) of the largest-ever payload (a hydrocracking reactor weighing 1,306 tonnes to the Achinsk refinery).

Four reactors of the first and second stages – two at each of the Kuibyshev and Syzran refineries – were delivered and installed at the sites of the vacuum gas oil hydrofining units currently being built at the factory’s FCC complex. Each reactor weighs 550 tonnes, and measures 36 m in length and 6.4 m in diameter. The reactors for the hydrofining units arrived from St Petersburg by sea, having covered about 2,400 km. The reactor handling and installation in place required specialized cranes with the lifting capacities of 1,350 tonnes.

The gas oil hydrofining units of the Kuibyshev and Syzran refineries are designed to remove sulfur-, nitrogen- and oxygen-containing organic admixtures from vacuum gas oil, which is then used as a raw material to produce automotive fuels meeting the most stringent Euro-5 ecological standard.

The last fourth oversize reactor of the diesel fuel treatment unit was installed at the Angara Petrochemical Company. The second-stage reactor weighs about 330 tonnes and has a length of 36 meters. It is made of chromium-molybdenum-vanadium steel, which boasts outstandingly high heat resistance. The reactor travelled from Yekaterinburg to Angarsk in a specially designed carriage by rail.

Work is also under way to install four hydrocracking reactors ranging in weight from 350 to 1,300 tonnes and measuring in length from 24 to 48 m at the Achinsk refinery, for which the dedicated B-SET WV transport and handling machine is used to put the bulky loads upright. The portal based system can lift loads up to 1,400 tonnes to about 100 meters and, moreover, is able to perform precise positioning of equipment on fundaments. The reactors are the key elements of the hydrocracking unit, which is currently being built at Achinsk along with the petroleum coke complex. With the new production facilities in place, the company will increase the refining depth rate to 96%.

RN-Komsomolsky refinery is installing another four reactors – the vacuum gas oil hydrocracking reactor, the first and second stage hydrocracking reactors, and the diesel fuel hydrofining reactor – which will be the elements of the hydrocracking complex currently being built. Despite the floods in the Russian Far East this autumn, the refinery managed to shortly rehabilitate the berthing facility at the Amur River and the approach road to the construction site. The oversize equipment, weighing in total 2,500 tonnes, with the heaviest reactor weighing 1,306 tonnes, was delivered to the site. Three of the four reactors have already been put in position. The hydrocracking complex is expected to enable the transition to the production of only Euro-5 compliant products, as well as the increase in the refining depth to 95% and the creation of about a thousand new jobs both at the refinery and contractors.

Another load of oversize equipment was shipped to the Novokuibyshevsk Oils and Additives Plant. Specialized vehicles delivered sections of the T-1301 vacuum column from Yekaterinburg to the construction site of the isodewaxing unit. The column will be assembled right at the place of installation. It will reach 38 in height when ready and will have a diameter of 4.6 meters and the total weight of about 137 tonnes. The construction of the IDW unit is the second stage of the larger effort as part of the plant’s investment program to set up an up-to-date and technologically advanced hydrotreatment complex. The unit is intended for catalytic dewaxing in hydrogen media of hydrogenizates and hydrocracking residues, fed from the Novokuibyshevsk refinery. With the IDW unit commissioned, the company will be able to produce new generation commercial oils, featuring improved physical, chemical and operating properties.

Rosneft Information Division
20 December 2013