Modernisation of Shymkent refinery will be completed as planned
Modernisation of the Shymkent oil refinery will be completed as planned at the end of September this year, Kazakh Minister of Energy Kanat Bozumbayev said on August 22.
"The construction works for the second stage have been completed. In the beginning of July this year, petroleum products were sent for flushing the system and running equipment, start-up and commissioning work is underway. On August 15, 2018 crude reactor block of the catalytic cracking unit was launched, by the end of September 2018 the start of operation is planned," Bozumbaev said at a government meeting.
He recalled that the project for the reconstruction of the Shymkent oil refinery modernisation completed the first phase of the project in June 2017: a hydrogen purification unit was launched, production of K-4 and K-5 ecological fuels was set up, while the share of high-octane gasoline in the production of this enterprise is now about 100 percent.
"At the end of last year, the project of modernisation of the Pavlodar refinery was completed, the project goal was achieved, production of fuel of ecological class K-4, K-5, production of high-octane gasoline was established," the minister recalled.
The capacity of the modernised Pavlodar plant allows processing West Siberian oil in the volume of 5.5 million tonnes per year, as well as Kazakhstan oil in volume up to 4.7 million tonnes per year.
"At the same time, in June 2018, the production of jet fuel was established, a declaration of compliance of jet fuel with the technical regulations of the Customs Union was received and a PIN-code for aviation fuel of the RT brand was given," the minister added.
Technical works on the reconstruction and modernisation of the Atyrau oil refinery have also been completed, the plant starts commissioning at the moment.
"As part of the launching operations, 10 out of 12 process units with the production of target products were commissioned under the project, starting operations are continuing for the remaining two installations, the end is planned for August of this year. These installations do not exert any influence on the technological cycle of the plant," Bozumbaev says.
He noted that this enterprise also switched to the production of motor fuel of K-4 and K-5 class, which meets the Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards, simultaneously the production of fuel oil will decrease at the plant in Atyrau and the production of vacuum gas oil will stop.
"After the modernisation of the plant, the volume of production of high-octane gasoline will be 4.4 thousand tonnes per day and diesel fuel – 5.2 thousand tonnes per day," the Energy Minister concluded.
