FSUOGM: Russia overhauls refineries

Russia’s energy ministry has entered into investment deals with 14 refineries worth RUB800bn ($10.5bn) for the construction of new processing units.

The investments will be spent building 30 units, the commissioning of which will lead to a growth in Russian Euro-5 standard gasoline supply by over 3.6mn tonnes per year, and Euro-5 standard diesel by 25mn tpy. The modernisation work will also entail a drop in Russian heavy fuel oil (HFO) output, a low-value product considered the dregs of the refining process.

The investment deals were signed by four Rosneft-owned refineries, Novokuibyshevk, Syzran, Tuapse and Komsomolsk, two Gazprom Neft-run facilities, Moscow and Omsk, the Afipsk and Orsk refineries managed by Mikhail Gutseriev’s Safmar Group, Tatneft’s Taneco complex, Gazprom’s Neftekhim Salavat, and independent plants Novoskakhtinsk and Antipinsk.

In oil and gas news from Moscow, a draft government document seen by Reuters last week shows that Russian producers struggled to reduce flared gas volumes in 2020 because of a lack of necessary infrastructure at oilfields.

Moscow had tried to raise associated petroleum gas (APG) utilisation to 95% by 2012. However, it reached a peak of 88.2% in 2015, from 76.2% in 2013, and has since declined. It rose slightly to 82.6% in 2020 from 81.5% in the previous year.

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