OREANDA-NEWS. June 10, 2011. The Omsk Oil Refinery has processed its billionth tonne of crude oil since its opening in 1955. This makes the refinery the first in Russia to reach this goal. The landmark billionth tonne was processed at AVT-7 Production Plant.

The capacity of the Omsk Oil Refinery, one of the world’s largest oil processing facilities, now stands at 20 million tonnes per year. In 2010 the volume of oil refining at the facility was around 19 million tonnes, with the refining depth of 83.27%, one of the highest in the Russian refining industry.

Today the Omsk refinery produces around 50 types of product. The facility occupies the leading position in Russia in terms of motor fuel production. A significant proportion of the production structure at the plant is devoted to aromatic hydrocarbons: benzene, paraxylene, orthoxylene, all raw materials for the petrochemical and organic synthesis industries. The modernised technological process at the Aromatics complex allows for the production of orthoxylene of up to 99.6% purity, benzene of up to 99.98% purity and paraxylene of up to 99.95% purity – the highest ratings in the world.

Alexander Meling, the General Director of the Omsk Oil Refinery, said: “Today the Omsk Oil Refinery is one of the most state-of-the-art oil processing facilities in Russia. To have reached a billion tonnes is the result of over half a century of plant operation and contributions to the development of the enterprise from the Gazprom Neft group. With their support we have been able to move toward a common goal – to achieve market leadership in terms of volume and depth of oil refining, and the range and quality of products.”

“The billionth tonne of oil from the Omsk Oil Refinery is a major milestone, not only for the Omsk facility, but for the entirety of the Gazprom Neft group. Today, as a part of our long-term strategy for this enterprise, we are introducing a large-scale modernisation program. Gazprom Neft is facing several major challenges - to improve the environmental performance of motor fuels, to increase the refining depth, and to expand the range of high-octane gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products produced at our refineries, the largest of which is the Omsk refinery. I am convinced that the successful implementation of this modernisation program will significantly shorten the path to the second billion”, declared Gazprom Neft CEO Alexander Dyukov.