Rosneft Oil Company’s Samara-based refineries—Kuibyshev Refinery, Novokuibyshevsk Refinery and Syzran Refinery—have won the 17th national contest “Leader of Environmental Protection in Russia 2021”.

Their victory in the prestigious environmental competition confirms the effectiveness of environmental protection measures implemented at Rosneft’s enterprises and demonstrates recognition of their achievements at the expert level.

Environment protection is an integral part of the Rosneft Oil Company’s corporate culture and operations. The Company aims to achieve leadership positions in ensuring the eco-friendliness of its production and minimising the environmental impact.

At the competition, the Novokuibyshevsk Refinery was recognised as the Best Environmentally Responsible Monotown Enterprise. The refinery employs innovative and resource-saving technologies and is upgrading its wastewater treatment facilities and recycling systems. The plant operates a water treatment unit using membrane bioreactor technology, which provides deep biological treatment of wastewater. The measures implemented have helped to reduce water withdrawal from natural sources and increase recycled water use by over 94%.

The Novokuibyshevsk Refinery monitors atmospheric air conditions around the clock. There are stationary and mobile environmental stations in its sanitary protection zone, equipped with modern high-precision equipment to analyse the state of the air around the clock. The enterprise is completing a project to equip its tanks with special pontoons, which will reduce the evaporation of petroleum products from the surface by almost 100%. In 2020, the Novokuibyshevsk Refinery switched to the production of a new type of environmentally friendly marine fuel, TMS type A, fully compliant with the requirements of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).

Two enterprises, Kuibyshev Refinery and Syzran Refinery, have received the Best Environmental Policy in the Refining Industry diploma. The Syzran Refinery is implementing a set of measures to reduce the technogenic impact on the environment. The production upgrade involves the introduction of low-waste and resource-saving technologies and the development of environmental facilities, including the reconstruction of biological and physical-chemical wastewater treatment facilities and water recycling systems, and the equipping of reservoirs with sealed pontoons. The enterprise is scaling up production of highly environmentally friendly marine fuels. In H1 2021, the Syzran Refinery shipped to customers more than 67,000 tonnes of low-sulphur RMLS 40 marine fuel, an increase of 27% over the entire year 2020. The use of this fuel in ship bunkering minimises the environmental impact of transport.

The enterprise is extensively implementing elements of the green office system, including electronic document management and separate waste collection. A new mobile environmental monitoring station for water and soil was put into operation. The oil industry workers planted about 7,000 pine seedlings in the burnt-out forest in the Syzran district.

For the Kuibyshev Refinery, the Russian Environmental Leader diploma is the 6th highest award of the competition received. Through the implementation of a large-scale upgrade programme and significant environmental projects, the Kuibyshev Refinery has been able to reduce its atmospheric impact by 2.5 times since 2011. The list of its most significant environmental projects includes the conversion of the refinery’s power units to gas fuel, the commissioning of the FCC catalytic cracking complex and the decommissioning of obsolete catalytic cracking units, the installation of pontoons on the feedstock and product storage tanks to prevent oil product evaporation, and the construction of water recycling units. The enterprise is currently renovating its wastewater treatment plant.

The state of the atmospheric air in the refinery’s area of influence is tracked by an advanced environmental monitoring complex, which includes an air and wastewater laboratory, a mobile environmental station and three stationary environmental stations. The high-precision equipment can perform about 20,000 atmospheric air analyses a month. The air condition data is transmitted to a monitor installed in Samara around the clock.

Rosneft
Information Division
November 22, 2021

Keywords: Environmental News 2021