Page 33 - Industrial Plants

factor in choosing the refinery development strategy.
Harmonisation with the European requirements for fuels
quality, environmental legislation, as well as the
increased competition by European oil products
producers in the area of the Balkans and south-east
Europe, were Lukoil key factors to set new goals for the
refinery:
• Improved refinery economic performance,
including thorough increased production of light
fuels with high added value and total increased
conversion of up to 90%.
• Compliance with the long-term requirements of
European and Bulgarian legislation regarding
product quality through commissioning additional
deep oil conversion processes.
• Reaching 1 -2 quartiles of Solomon indices for
st
nd
Central and South-Eastern Europe
• Assurance of compliance with the long-term
environmental requirements

This major undertaking was successfully
completed due to a collaborative,
‘win-win’ approach from all parties
throughout the entire project, with an
EPC LSTK contract based on the Open
Book Estimate developed during the
FEED phase

To achieve these goals LNB executed a master plan
considering several different refinery development
scenarios. After completing economic and marketing
n 2015 Technip Italy completed the construction, analysis, the heavy residue hydrocracking process was
commissioned and supported the start-up and considered the most attractive project.
initial operations of the largest Vacuum Residue The Complex Development Program was prepared
Hydrocracker based on Axens H-Oil™ technology providing for a heavy residue processing complex
ever built. The unit has been constructed in construction based on vacuum residue hydrocracking
IBourgas on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria for process H-Oil™ licensed by Axens.
Lukoil Neftochim Bourgas (LNB), subsidiary of the
Russian major oil operator Lukoil. The project results
have been presented as a world class reference in The deep conversion units in the
workshops [1], [2]. This paper focuses on the refinery
challenges, the expectations, the achievements of LNB
H-Oil™ project (HRPC) and of the key factors for the Deep conversion units in the refinery increase the
successful project execution. conversion of the crude oil into more valuable products
such as gasoline and diesel, and minimize the
production of fuel oil by increasing the hydrogen to
The history of the HRPC project – carbon ratio of the upgraded feedstock. The increase

objectives, process selection of the hydrogen to carbon ratio is achieved either
rejecting carbon, using delayed coking technology or
st
On 1 January 2007 Bulgaria became a full member of adding hydrogen. Table 1 compares major features of
the European Union. This fact became a key determinant the two main technologies available in the market.

IndustrIal Plants - May 2017
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