Russia's Tatneft plans new gas chemical plant

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russian oil producer Tatneft plans to invest $4.2 B in constructing a new gas chemical plant to diversify into new, higher profit businesses, Chief Executive Nail Maganov told Reuters.

Tatneft runs the TANEKO oil refining complex in its home region of Tatarstan in Russia's Volga-Urals region some 620 mi east of Moscow.

"The company is currently studying possible options of producing high-margin chemical products... and therefore plans to start building a gas chemical complex with approximate investments of 250 B roubles," Maganov said in emailed answers to Reuters questions.

Maganov did not provide further details.

Tatneft, which produces oil mostly from depleted fields in the Russian region of Tatarstan, while also focusing on high-viscosity crude, is pumping around 1 Bcm of gas per year.

Tatneft plans to launch the second stage at its TANEKO refinery next year, boosting primary refining capacity to 12 MMt from 7.8 MMt planned for this year.

Maganov, a Tatneft oil veteran, said that the company plans to produce around 29 MMt of oil this year (580,000 bpd), slightly up from last year but below the initially planned 29.3 MMt due to the of the global oil cut deal.

Maganov also said his company envisages an oil price of $40/bbl in its business plan for the next 2 yr–3 yr, citing shale oil development in the United States that will cap a recovery in prices.

By 2025, Tatneft plans to produce 30.3 MMt of oil per year, Maganov said in the email.

Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; Writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Andrey Ostroukh and Louise Heavens

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