Gazprom Neft’s Omsk refinery has stopped petroleum coke (petcoke) production after its petcoke unit caught fire on the morning of September 15, according to multiple reports. The Omsk petcoke unit has a production capacity of 200,000 tons per year.
“Omsk refinery was loading 12,000 to 13,000 tons of low-sulphur petcoke per month. With this incident, there may be a short-term increase in demand for petroleum coke products from Turkmenbashi, Baku and Volgograd refineries,” Legion Oil & Gas LLC director Yury Burenko commented.
Omsk refinery produces anode grade petcoke with a sulphur content below 1.5 percent.
The petcoke unit heat exchanger caught fire. There were no casualties reported. Equipment has been stopped for cooling for an unknown period.
During the first nine months of 2016, Omsk refinery loaded 116,900 tons of petroleum coke, mostly to domestic customers, namely the aluminum giant Rusal. Omsk has also exported 7,300 tons to China.
Omsk petcoke is mainly consumed by electrode producers. In 2015, Omsk refinery tested its delayed coker unit (DCU) for needle petcoke production, loading a trial lot to the domestic market.
Legion Oil & Gas LLC is a petroleum coke supplier, focused on sourcing from former Soviet Union countries and Russia.
