Atyrau Refinery started the production of benzol. On July 4, 2016, the first 300 tons were shipped to the Tula region of the Russian Federation. Kairat Urazbayev, the General Director of Atyrau Refinery LLP, the management of the Kazakh branches of Sinopec Engineering (Group) Co. LTD and "KazStroyService", representatives of the "Marubeni" company, as well as local and republican media attended the celebration dedicated to this event.

Benzol was successfully filled into tank wagons for the first time at our enterprise. A new specialized overpass, built as part of the implementation of the APC project, was used for the filling and it employed standard system of hermetic filling of products, which excludes the ingress of benzol vapors into the atmosphere.

According to the conclusion of the Central Plant Laboratory, the poured commercial oil product meets the requirements of purified benzol 545 and meets the quality of compliance with the requirements of the international standard ASTM D 4734-08.

A control check of the tank car hatch covers and sealing was carried out in front of the journalists. Then the tanks with benzol produced at Atyrau Refinery were shipped to their destination.

- Benzol became one of the products produced at the plant. Today we have shipped the first industrial batch. This product is produced in a catalytic reforming unit - CCR, which is part of the aromatics production complex. The construction of the checkpoint was part of the State Industrial Development Program and a number of sectoral programs for the development of the oil refining and petrochemical industries.

The CCR unit is currently operating on a fuel variant with a maximum high-octane component output. At the same time, the process of extractive distillation includes the extraction of benzol from gasoline components.

This allowed the plant to achieve the maximum production of high-octane gasolines with improved environmental characteristics, that is, to reduce the level of benzol in the gasoline produced by up to 1% in accordance with the requirements of the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union, as well as to obtain benzol with a purity of 99.9%., a product with high added value and to bring this product to world markets.

In the nearest future the refinery plans to transfer the filling process of all light oil products that uses similar hermetic filling systems.

For this purpose, it is planned to commission a new overpass in the next six months with an automatic installation of timing loading within the framework of the construction of the DORC, which will be located on the south side of the adjacent territory of Atyrau Refinery LLP, which will also have a favorable effect on the environmental situation, since the loading process will be removed farther from the city.

A huge amount of work has been done by the plant workers themselves - designers, builders, technologists, production workers, marketers; contractors. Together we have gone from a project on paper to production of benzol, high-octane automobile gasolines, - said the general director of the plant, Kairat Urazbayev, answering journalists' questions.

Atyrau Refinery first announced the production of the first benzol at the CCR catalytic reforming unit on July 3, 2015. A great amount of work was involved after receiving a flow of benzol to prepare and fill pipeline communications with benzol, fill the tanks of the intermediate and commodity parks. At the same time, another large PX unit had commissioning work underway in order to ensure normal technological conditions for the production of another product - paraxylene.

In the first quarter of 2016, due to a decrease in oil supplies to the refinery due to the current situation in the oil market, the CCR unit, as well as the main technological units of the refinery, were operated at minimum capacities, which negatively affected the benzol extraction process in maintaining the operating parameters of the extractive distillation unit.

Since April of this year, after providing sufficient processing volumes at the plant's technological units, the unit for extractive distillation of benzol has been brought to operating parameters to obtain a benzol stream of the required quality. At this time, about 1000 tons of benzol have already been produced. A further increase in benzol production at Atyrau Refinery will take place after the completion of the construction of the Deep Oil Refining Complex (DORC) and the commissioning of the Paramax-PX unit, which is currently completed.

The start of industrial production of benzol at Atyrau Refinery is a significant event in expanding the range of products as a result of the refinery modernization. Benzol is one of the ten most important substances in the chemical industry, is a feedstock for the production of various plastics, synthetic rubber, drugs, dyes, and is part of gasoline. There are about 30% of aromatic hydrocarbons in the physical weight of plastics, 66% in rubbers, up to 80% in synthetic fibers, aromatic hydrocarbons come from benzol. In this regard, the industrial production of benzol in Kazakhstan is of great importance for the development of petrochemical industries.

The honor to open the valve on the benzol tank was given to operator Tulegen Aimagambetov, the veteran of labor, the operator of the raw material park of the oil refining production, who has been working at Atyrau Refinery since 1979. Nadezhda Strunyasheva, who won the "Uzdik Maman" competition, was among the laboratory assistants who conducted tests on the conformity of the quality of benzol.

Asylbek Malenov, the operator of the tank farm; flyover operators Mikhail Bochkov, Yeldar Karazhanov, Berdybek Shaki, Yelzhas Abdibatov; technological pump operators Artur Yerzhanov, Zholzhan Tazhibayev, Sabit Yerzhanov took part in the shipment of benzol. The shipping issues were handled by Malik Baizhaunov, the head of the storage and shipment of benzol and paraxylene, Aigul Zhantlekova, the head of the shipment section, Nariman Kasanov, the head of the production of commercial oil products and Vasily Gatsko, the head of oil refining.

In addition, Vladimir Feklistov, the operator of the CCR process unit, and Meirman Bekhozhaev, the deputy head of the PX process unit, spoke to the journalists. They noted in their speeches that they had little work experience at Atyrau Refinery, but from the first days of work they felt the intensive rhythm of the enterprise. Major investment projects are being successfully implemented here, high world-class technologies are being introduced, and these contribute to the development of the country's scientific, technical and economic potential. They will make every effort to achieve the overall goals of our plant. Benzol produced at Atyrau Refinery is the first Kazakhstani petrochemical product and has a great future.