November
2016
HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
16
company. At the beginning of 2002 Goldovskiy was
detained and subsequently passed control of the
company over to Gazprom.
However, the interest in RAFO does not seem to
have worked. Since 2008 the refinery has been out of
operation for economic reasons, and it appears that the
company failed to attract major investment for its
modernisation. In June 2016, some media reports
indicated that the Onesti refinery had been sold to an
Austrian company, Andres Capital GmbH, controlled by a
group of Moldovan investors. It is currently unclear
whether the new owners will manage to breathe life into
the plant.
Bulgaria
In the Soviet era, the relationship between the
Soviet Union and Bulgaria was so close that the latter
was almost considered a 16
th
republic of the USSR.
Obviously, this had an impact on the Bulgarian refining
industry. In 1964, the Burgas refinery was put on stream
with the assistance of Soviet specialists. Later it was
developed into a refining and petrochemical hub on
the Black Sea coast. The golden age of the refinery
came in the late 1980s – refining throughput amounted
to 14 million tpy. In the 1990s, annual throughput varied
greatly and capacities were selectively put out of
operation to improve the plant’s economic
performance.
1999 was a milestone year in the history of the
Burgas refinery, as it became part of the Lukoil Group.
As Lukoil gained control over the refinery it embarked
upon a modernisation programme aimed at increasing
energy efficiency, improving environmental friendliness,
and bringing motor fuel production up to current
European standards. Throughput stabilised at
5.8 - 6.4 million tpy.
Another pivotal modernisation goal was to increase
the conversion rate, since all it had then in terms of
residue conversion was a visbreaker and bitumen
production. In the mid-2000s the decision was taken to
construct a residue conversion complex, with a
2.5 million tpy residue hydrocracking unit (H-Oil process)
at its core. Construction finished in mid-2015. Operation
of the complex, as expected, will make it possible to
process more third party fuel oil, and to increase light
product yield by 20%.
Serbia
Whilst on the topic of Russian investments into the
region, it is imperative to take a closer look at Serbia.
After Yugoslavia broke up, it became apparent that
Serbia had two refineries on its territory, Pancevo and
Novi Sad, with 5.4 and 3 million tpy of capacity,
respectively. Both refineries were built in 1968. Aside
from local crude, the facilities could obtain their
feedstock via the Adria pipeline. In 2009, as per the
intergovernmental agreement between Serbia and
Russia, a 51% stake in the state-owned Naftna Industrija
Srbije (NIS), the company that controlled all of Serbia’s
petroleum assets, was sold to Russia’s state-owned oil
company Gazprom Neft. In March 2011 Gazprom Neft
increased its interest in NIS to over 56%.
In 2009 - 2012 Gazprom Neft invested
€
540 million
in the Serbian refining industry. Most of the investment
went into the construction of a hydrocracking and
distillates hydrotreating complex at Pancevo. The
complex was launched in 2012, thus making it possible
for the refinery to produce Euro 5 fuels and increase its
conversion rate. The throughput went up as well, from
2.3 - 2.4 million tpy in 2011 - 2012 to 3.1 - 3.3 million tpy
in 2013 - 2015.
The second modernisation stage that has been
announced for Pancevo is a project to increase the
conversion rate, with a DCU at its core. In March 2015,
NIS contracted CB&I for technology licensing and
project front end engineering design (FEED). The
finalisation date is set for 2020.
Croatia
After the break up of Yugoslavia, Croatia received a
large portion of its refining assets – the plants in Rijeka
and Sisak, which have capacities of 4.5 and 2.2 million,
respectively, and are integrated into the Adria pipeline
system connecting the refineries to the Port of Omisalj
in the Adriatic Sea.
The refineries are owned by INA. The company’s
history began in 1964 with the integration of two
refineries and an oil and gas production company
called Naftaplin Zagreb. In 2003 INA and MOL, its
Hungarian oil and gas ‘neighbour’, formed a strategic
partnership whereby MOL acquired ‘25% plus one
share’ in INA for US$505 million. This happened to be
just the first step – over the following 10 years MOL
grew its share in INA to over 49%.
In 2011 the Rijeka refinery finalised its
modernisation. Following the construction and launch
of a soft hydrocracking complex, all of the motor fuels
produced were up to Euro 5 standards. The Sisak
refinery was also modernised: in 2009 it launched an
FCC gasoline hydrotreating unit, and in 2011 an
isomerisation unit.
In February 2014 a contract for the basic design of a
DCU for the Rijeka refinery was signed with Bechtel
Hydrocarbon Technical Solutions. The expected
amount of investment is around
€
300 - 350 million.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
The only refinery in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in
the vicinity of Bosanski Brod, may well be one with the
most dramatic history in the region. The first train of
the refinery, with a capacity of 1.2 million tpy, was built
in 1968. Although the refinery’s primary distillation
capacity was rather small, it operated a vacuum gas oil
(VGO) hydrocracking unit that provided for high light
product yield, as well as low sulfur residue. The latter
was further processed into high quality base oils and
lubricants at a local motor oil plant. In 1990 the second
train was constructed with a capacity of 3 million tpy.
The refinery possessed good feedstock logistics, since
it was tied into the Adria pipeline system.
