OREANDA-NEWS. February 18, 2010. OAO TATNEFT plans to complete reconstruction of the Minnibayevo gas processing plant (Almetyevsk region of Tatarstan) by the end of 2010. This is done for the purpose of increasing the production of ethane from 85 to 140 thousand tons per year, reported the press-centre of TATNEFT.

Due to the high content of nitrogen in the associated petroleum gas the increase in recovering target components, including ethane, will lead to formation of large amount of low-calorie dry stripped gas for combustion purposes. This has been a reason for selecting cryogenic technology with an internal refrigeration cycle. This technology involves separation of gaseous nitrogen from the hydrocarbon liquid at temperatures below minus 180°C followed by separation of the hydrocarbon mixture into methane and ethane fractions. It has been decided to implement a project of intensifying the recovery of ethane in 2 aspects: increasing the reliability of existing process units, construction of a new cryogenic plant, which allows to increase the recovery of ethane up to 91% of its potential content in raw materials and bring the calorific efficiency of the dry stripped gas in compliance with the requirements of OST 5140.

The Minnibayevo gas refinery desulfurization unit process flow diagram was improved earlier. This enabled to improve the quality of cleaning and drying the gas, increase the life of the pipeline and significantly reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide to the atmosphere. Upgrading of Gas Fractionation Unit GFU-300 was implemented with replacement of the ASU TP (automated process control system) and the PAZ (emergency shutdown system) with application of modern microprocessor based technology, improving of the unit’s contact devices was also performed allowing to increase its raw materials loading capacity and to improve the production efficiency.

The Minnibayevo gas refinery, which is a part of the "Tatneftegazpererabotka" Administration of OAO TATNEFT annually processes about 680 million cubic meters of the associated gas and 285 thousand tons of natural gas liquids. This amount represents raw materials to produce liquefied gases (fractions of propane, iso-butane, normal butane, iso-pentane), ethane fraction, dry stripped gas, stable natural gasoline, hexane fraction and technical grade sulfur. Gaseous oxygen and nitrogen are also produced in addition to the main range of products.