Tatneft improves ecological safety at its production plants
Oil major Tatneft is currently and successfully executing a series of projects within the limits of its large-scaled program to boost the ecological safety at its oil production facilities. One of the most perspective of these is the project dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of utilization and recycling of the so-called associated petrol gas (APG) between 2009 and 2013. This project envisages increasing the operating ratio of APG utilization up to 98%, which will enable the company to substantially lower the emissions of products of hydrocarbon burning into the atmosphere.
It needs to be noted here that over 380mln rubles were allocated for the realization of the program, when the project was launched in 2008-2009, while this sum will be increased to over 800mln rubles in 2010. The money will be used for the reconstruction and expansion of the company’s existing capacities for purifying APG, replacement of the existing and construction of new gas pipelines in the APG collection system and also for the installation of new oil heating furnaces.
Currently, Tatneft effectively utilizes 738.4mln cubic meters of APG per year, which constitutes about 94% of its annual total gas production volume. The company has actively been working for years on the reduction of the volume of the APG that burns in its production facilities in three key directions: development of an APG collection system and transferring the gas for reprocessing at the Minnibaevsky Gazprocessing Factory, use of furnaces to heating the oil during its preparation to 
standard marketable standard conditions and generation of electric power and heat via gas-piston electric power stations. These steps are concrete steps aimed at the realization of the Government’s Resolution, “The measures for the stimulation of reduction of pollution of atmospheric air by products from burning APG on flare devices installations dated Jan. 8, 2009.” Specifically, this resolution envisages increasing the level of utilization and recycling of APG in the Russian oil industry to 95% by Jan. 1, 2012.
In order to minimize breakdown susceptibility of the oil-field equipment’s reservoir pressure formation maintenance system, Tatneft has taken special measures to boost its anticorrosive protection. For instance, the company has introduced special anticorrosive pump-compressor pipes, which help increase the duration of the equipment’s exploitation in oil injection wells by 2-2.5 times. The realization of these programs will lead to a significant reduction in expenses on oil well repair and maintenance, pollution around the oil wells by products of corrosion and expenses on exploration for new oil wells. The total cumulative economic effect from the realization of these programs in 2004-2009 exceeded 900mln rubles.
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