OREANDA-NEWS. January 4, 2012. Sergei Kudryashov, Deputy Energy Minister of Russia, and Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, visited OAO TANECO on December 29.

This was already the second visit of Sergey Kudryashov to the refinery and petrochemical plants Complex in Nizhnekamsk (NPiNHZ Complex) in 2011. A number of significant events has happened in the company since his first visit in early April.

Information Reference

According to executive order No. 28-p of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation of November 29, 2011 the refinery of OAO TANECO was included into the number of operating enterprises of Russia. The words "Under construction" in the column "Refinery status" were replaced by the words "Put into operation".

A license for operation of explosion-hazardous production facilities was granted by the Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Atomic Supervision (Rostechnadzor) on December 2, 2011.

At the industrial area of the Complex Sergei Kudryashov accompanied by Ilshat Fardiev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy of the Republic of Tatarstan, Shafagat Takhautdinov, General Director of OAO TATNEFT and Khamza Bagmanov, General Director of OAO TANECO, examined the refinery key facilities and the transport infrastructure of the Complex.

Following this there was an extended meeting to discuss the prospects for further implementation of the TATNEFT Company strategic project: TANECO Complex and a number of other issues.

A report on the results of commissioning works, the refinery performance by the volume and quality of products was presented by Khamza Bagmanov, General Director of OAO TANEKO. He informed the meeting that so far 2 million 80 thousand tons of crude oil had been processed. All products received comply with the requirements of the state standards. As of today the vacuum distillation unit of CDU/VDU-7, acid gases flare system, condensate polishing unit of HVO installation, deaerator package, vacuum gas oil tank farm facilities, boiler fuel mixing and cooling unit at the visbreaking facility working on the tar from CDU/VDU-7 operate in a normal process mode. Start-up operations are being carried out at the facility of tar visbreaking. A work program has been developed to prepare and start production of elemental sulfur.

Nail Maganov, First Deputy General Director of OAO TATNEFT - Head of URNiN (Crude Oil and Petroleum Products Sale Department), reported on the configuration and the planned dates for commissioning future phases of TANECO Complex.

The meeting also reviewed the operational issues associated with the production and transportation of crude oil. Reports on the subjects were presented by Nail Ibragimov, Chief Engineer of OAO TATNEFT, and Rais Khisamov, Chief Geologist of the Company.

Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Sergei Kudryashov highly praised the role of TANECO Complex for economy of the Russian Federation. Deputy Energy Minister of the Russian Federation also noted the huge work of all those involved in the project implementation. According to him, the oil and gas industry of Tatarstan enters 2012 with good prospects and well grounded expectations.

Rustam Minnikhanov told the journalists about the TANECO Complex importance for the future development of our Republic. In accordance with the objectives set by Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, of doubling the gross domestic product Tatarstan should bring up the gross regional product to two trillion rubles by the end of 2015. There is no chance to fulfill this objective without such high-tech and large-scale projects as TANECO. "Commissioning of TANECO's first stage is the most important step to increasing the depth of crude oil refining to 97%" - President said.

A little earlier during the meeting he had praised the role of TATNEFT Company in the development of all sectors of the Republic economy.