Rosneft to change location of FEPCO project due to planned expansion
MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) - The board of directors of Rosneft decided on November 8 to triple the capacity of the future Far East Petrochemical Company (FEPCO) from to 30 million tonnes of feedstock per year from 10 million tonnes, the company reported.
The board also decided to locate the plant in the area of Pad Yelizarova in the Partizansk district of Primorye. "The change of capacity of the FEPCO project makes it impossible to locate the facilities of the third phase at the site near the village of Pervostroitelei in the Nakhodka municipal district due to the insufficient size of the available construction site," the company said.
The cost of building the three phases is estimated at 1.3 trillion rubles.
Rosneft initially considered building an oil refinery with annual capacity of up to 20 million tonnes in the area of Yelizarov Cape. However, the Federal Environmental, Technological and Atomic Oversight Service (Rostekhnadzor) affirmed the negative conclusion of a government environmental review of the construction materials. Rosneft then resubmitted the design documentation on the marine part of the refinery project - a marine terminal, seawater intake and dispersal of treated runoff - and the regulator approved it.
However, environmental organization Green Cross argued that building the oil refinery in the watershed of the Litovka River in Pad Yelizarova in Vostok Gulf would be a health hazard to local residents and do irreparable damage to a national marine sanctuary that is home to about 700 types of valuable marine animals, including some that are included in the Red Books of Russia and Primorye. A court ordered Rosneft to provide the design documentation for the project to the environmentalists.
Later the company said that the future oil refinery would have capacity of up to 10 million tonnes per year, but then Rosneft decided to change the oil refining project into a petrochemicals project. In June 2013 it presented a new FEPCO project with capacity to process 30 million tonnes, including 24 million tonnes of crude oil and 6 million tonnes of naphtha. The first phase could have capacity of up to 12 million tonnes per year; the second phase would involve launching a petrochemical unit with capacity of 3.4 million tonnes of product per year; and the third phase would involve expanding oil refining by another 12 million tonnes and petrochemical production by another 2.6 million tonnes per year.
The refining depth of the future complex could be 95%. The project, which would be delivered over a period of 15 years, also calls for construction of a new seaport with terminals to receive and offload crude oil and oil products. Rosneft has asked the government to support the project by building infrastructure such as oil and gas pipelines, railways, power lines and the port.
Oil pipeline monopoly Transneft believes expanding oil refining under the FEPCO project from 10 million tonnes to 24 million tonnes would call into question the profitability of the transshipment terminal at the Kozmino port that is the terminus of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean oil pipeline.
