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"A Huge and Very Expensive Moonshine Still." How a Tyumen Oil Refinery Makes Fuel You Drive on
Tyumen Oil Refinery, formerly known as Antipinsky Oil Refinery, is the only enterprise in the Urals Federal District. It is the largest plant in Russia for the production of gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products, built through private investment. All other oil refineries in the country were built on the basis of existing production facilities. But in Tyumen, the plant had to be built from scratch. Construction began two years after it began in 2004. But it took 14 years to reach its current scale. How to make multi-million dollar fuel from Tyumen with materials from Daria Makeeva.
The tour of the giant begins with its first electric desalination plant (ELOU AT-1). It appeared here when it was bought at auction in 2006. This complex has the least capacity and can process 790 thousand tons of oil per year. Compared to the other two giants, it looks a little simple. But it was with it that the history of giant plants began.
Currently, all oil from the refinery is delivered via the Transneft pipeline. Although the refinery has a rail link, it is rarely used for shipping. The Trans-Siberian Railway is already overloaded, and many cargoes are moving east. However, oil refineries operate continuously, and delays are unacceptable. This also applies to deliveries of finished fuel transported by oil product pipelines and rail cars.
The deep processing complex for fuel oil (UGMP) built here is one of the first in the country. The annual throughput capacity is 4.6 million tons. This product itself is in little demand on the commodity market. The supply is decreasing every year. This is all explained by the fact that the state encourages manufacturers to increase the production of motor fuel (on average, the cost of a ton of fuel oil is 20 times cheaper than diesel fuel). And UGMP allows obtaining additional valuable petroleum products from fuel oil, including diesel fuel. By the way, last year the plant produced about 3% of all diesel in Russia.
In addition to the people who operate the facility, there are also operators who work "on site". In addition, we have a variety of shift services that ensure the continuous production process. In total, the plant employs about 2,000 people. Among them are employees of the Central Plant Research Institute. Plant employees collect samples and deliver them to the lab. In the warmer months, I ride my bike through the vast expanses of the plant.
Of course, the entire plant is based on modern equipment. There is much talk about advanced technologies and standards. The laboratories alone have a lot of imported equipment that requires timely maintenance and repair. What can we say about large installations where thousands of different processes occur per minute? 90% of the equipment was purchased abroad. In the early 2000s, these technologies were only available in developed countries in North America, Western Europe and Asia. Therefore, the main problem facing the plant after the introduction of sanctions was spare parts.
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