LUKOil has officially announced that production of ethylene and propylene was resumed at the Stavrolen petrochemical complex in Budennovsk. Stavrolen is Russia’s second largest low-pressure polyethylene manufacturer and the third largest polypropylene manufacturer. Stavrolen produces more than 300 thousand tons of polyethylene, 80 thousand tons of benzene, 50 thousand tons of vinyl acetate and 120 thousand tons of polypropylene. Low-pressure polyethylene (of high and medium density) is its core product.
LUKOIL has completed its repair-and-maintenance operations at the ethylene-production unit damaged by fire on February 26, 2014. The repair-and-renewal operations were conducted according to the approved schedule. Polypropylene production from imported feedstock was resumed as far back as last October.
Re-equipment of ethylene production was conducted as part of the repair-and-renewal operations in order to expand the gas-feedstock processing capacity. The re-equipment included the reconstruction of cracking furnaces, fuel-gas skids, gas-feedstock evaporation complexes and water-flush columns.