Process facilities at the new asset include a 300-tonne-per-day capacity polymer-bitumen binder production unit, a 200-tonne-per-day packaging unit, a 2,000-tonne-per-day capacity automated vehicle loading point, and an elevated tank-car filling rack for loading packaged bitumens, and loading/off-loading rail tank cars. Deliveries of raw materials will be managed from the Gazprom Neft Moscow Refinery, location of one of the most high-tech complexes for manufacturing bitumen products in Russia.
The production unit at Gazprom Neft’s bitumen terminal in Salsk is fully automated, and fully compliant with international industrial and environmental safety standards. Being equipped with laboratory facilities on site will allow full control over the quality of raw materials and manufactured goods, at every stage of production.
Anatoly Cherner, Deputy CEO for Logistics, Processing and Sales, Gazprom Neft, commented: “Gazprom Neft is developing its bitumens business in an integrated and comprehensive manner, offering a full range of integrated services including multimodal logistics, optimum packaging solutions, scientific and technical support in using bitumen materials, and IT services. Developing our own terminals network will allow us to further consolidate the company’s leading position in the bitumens market, and expand our geographic coverage in delivering modern, high-quality products.”
Russia’s Southern Federal District is a target region for Gazprom Neft in expanding the geographic range of the company’s distribution of bitumen products, with Partnership Agreements being concluded with the governments of the Stavropolsky Krai, the Krasnodarsky Krai and the Rostov Oblast throughout 2016–2017, aimed at promoting cooperation in meeting the region’s demand for Gazprom Neft’s high-technology bitumens and bitumen derivatives for highways construction and re-construction. Total supplies of bitumen materials to counterparties in Russia’s southern regions saw a two-fold year-on-year increase in 2017.