The Republic of Tatarstan as one of the most sustainable regions in Russia displays ever-increasing rates of growth. Owing to the biggest oil and gas and chemical operators located in its territory Tatarstan managed to set up the core of the manufacturing complex which development program involves a substantial scope of the activities aimed at upgrading of the existing production capacities and building of new ones. The TAIF-NK Public Stock Company makes part of the TAIF Group – the Republic’s largest holding company in terms of the petrochemical and oil refining operations, with TAIF-NK representing a new generation in the oil-refining sector. Intensive implementation of the trend-setting process technologies in combination with the effective social policy allows TAIF-NK to maintain the high quality output contributing to the competitive potential of the company. 

Oil refining industry is a relatively new business area for Tatarstan. It is owing to the industry genesis and fast evolvement across the region over the last two decades that it became possible to build up new processing and manufacturing capacities based on the advanced world-class technologies. As an oil refinery operator, the TAIF-NK Public Stock Company plays one of the leading roles in the regional oil and gas and chemical complex. The TAIF-NK Refinery offers a range of highly competitive oil products composed of 22 items such as motor gasoline, jet fuel, marine fuel, diesel, road bitumen, LPG etc. The key performance indicators reflect the efficiency of the chosen development strategy. Speaking in terms of figures, during 2016 the company processed as much as 8.3 mln tons of feedstock with the refining depth reaching 75.2%. In the same period, the company manufactured and sold marketable oil products to the amount of RUB 138 bln. At the republican, level the TAIF-NK Refinery accounts for 100 % of straight-run naphtha, 88% of motor gasoline, 58% of diesel fuel output. The company’s striving for compliance with the European quality standards is thoroughly consistent with the priorities outlined both in the regional development program and the national oil refining industry growth policy.

Project of strategic importance

The Republic of Tatarstan has been steadily moving forward from the heavy-duty industry-oriented economy to the present-day innovative and “smart” economic environment driven by the global market. TAIF-NK is running in the same line with a number of groundbreaking enterprises engaged in the business activities that require mastering of advanced technologies. At the moment TAIF-NK is focused on completion of a large strategically significant investment project intended to set up a heavy residual oil processing complex (Heavy Residue Conversion Complex) through utilization of the innovative process technologies so as to allow the company to step up from the heavy feedstock processing perspective. The Heavy Residue Conversion Complex is based on the unique technology known as the VCC (Veba Combi Cracking) process designed to convert heavy residual oil into high-margin light products, in particular, Euro-5 compliant diesel fuel; naphtha as high quality feedstock for petrochemistry; LPG in the form of propane and butane fractions The new plant will include vacuum residue hydrocracker, hydrogen production unit, sulfur recovery unit, as well as auxiliary units and tank yards. The heavy residual oil throughput capacity of the new plant will be 3.7 mln tons per year. The refining depth will be increased up to 98.6 %. When it comes to the construction of the new plant composed of the Heavy Residue Conversion Complex a particular care is given to utilization of state-of-art and resource-effective technologies as well as implementation of measures aimed at environmental impact minimization both from the projected and existing facilities of the TAIF-NK Refinery. At the moment the Heavy Residue Conversion Complex Project is in the quite advanced stage. Soon the new plant will be ready to run for the benefit and further growth of the Republic of Tatarstan. Once the Heavy Residue Conversion Complex is put into operation, Tatarstan will leave a mark in the history for breaking a path in the refinery industry through mastering the newish heavy residual oil process technologies whilst benefitting from one of the most efficient manufacturing capacities and advanced oil refinery configuration that will give an impetus to production debottlenecking and expansion strategies.

Innovative solutions for the benefit of the environment

As can be seen from the trends in global industries development, the world economies are currently oriented towards addressing the issues associated with the man-caused environmental impact mitigation. The state-of-art process technologies designed to improve the man’s influence on the environment underlie another investment project implemented by the company, which represents a meaningful environment-targeted solution involving a full-scale revamp of the in-plant waste water treatment facility. The facility underwent a substantial upgrading involving full replacement of the worn out and outdated equipment by modern, fully automated waste water treatment systems meeting the best international practices. This multistage waste water treatment technology is unique for the domestic industry. The essence of the technology lies in the use of the activated sludge in combination with mechanical filtration in the membrane bioreactor. This configuration allows removal of 99.99 % oil content and other contaminating agents from the waste water streams. Total investment cost for this revamp project was circa. RUB 4 bln. The project was fully financed through the company’s equity, i.e. without raising any outside funds. There has been no precedent in Russia before for this engineering solution whereby it was made practically possible to recycle the entire volume of generated waste water, i.e. through a fully closed recirculation scheme which was adopted for the refinery facility. TAIF-NK is among the flagship enterprises for implementation of the ecotechnologies and production of the fuels meeting the highest environmental standards. Adhesion to such approaches stems first of all from the HSE policy adopted and pursued by the TAIF Group, as well as from the social responsibility undertaken by TAIF-NK against the background of the environmental issues to be addressed by the entire region.
The Republic of Tatarstan today is a strong, rapidly growing region that supports a great many innovative processes taking place in Russia. The oil refining sector provides added value to improvement of the local population welfare and attainment of new heights from the point of view of social and economic development of the entire Republic of Tatarstan. All the activities undertaken by TAIF-NK as one of the major producers operating in Tatarstan are aimed at upgrading of the hydrocarbon feedstock process schemes in order to ensure higher quality output and align the production with the domestic oil and gas and chemical complex development policy and address the issues related to strengthening of the national competitive ability worldwide.

About the company:

The TAIF-NK Public Stock Company (a member of the TAIF Group) is one of the largest oil refinery operators in Russia. The TAIF-NK Refinery is composed of high performance production facilities, in particular, Crude Oil Processing Plant, Gasoline Plant, and Gas Condensate Processing Unit. TAIF-NK offers a wide product range composed of 22 items such as motor gasoline, jet fuel, marine fuel, diesel, road bitumen, LPG etc. All the products comply with the international quality standards. TAIF-NK is specifically focused on upgrading its manufacturing facilities along with mastering trend-setting technologies and investing in innovative projects intended to set up new production capacities meeting the up-to-date environmental safety requirements.