Tatarstan must become a leader in polymers application – Rustam Minnikhanov

Today the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov visited the 19th International Exhibition “Oil and Gas. Petrochemicals” being held within the territory of “Kazan Fair” and took part in the forums taking place within the framework of the exhibition.

The Head of the Republic saw exhibits of domestic and foreign companies which presented innovative solutions for oil and gas industry. Heads of such largest companies of Tatarstan as “Tatneft”, “TAIF” Group and others told the President of the Republic of Tatarstan about the plans of enterprises development.

For the first time Azerbaijan was presented by state oil company SOCAR. Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy of Azerbaijan Gyulmammed Dzhafarov informed Rustam Minnikhanov of the intent to stabilize his country’s oil production in the nearest future at the level of 50 million tons per year, while increasing oil refining. Upon giving high praise to Tatarstan partners he spoke for the development of cooperation.

For the second time leading enterprises of Bashkortostan were presented as a single exposition at Kazan oil and gas exhibition. President of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Bashkortostan Yury Pustovgarov said to the President of the Republic of Tatarstan that Kazan “Oil. Gas. Petrochemicals” would be a major offsite exhibition for enterprises of Bashkortostan. Today 68 companies of Bashkortostan are presented here including those dealing with engineering and equipment development for oil and gas industry.

Then Rustam Minnikhanov took part in an international scientific-practical conference "Heavy Oil and natural bitumen: problems and improving field exploration and development.” The conference has been held for the second day already. Yesterday, in particular, a report of “Tatneft” OJSC on the development of methods for the development of deposits of extra-viscous oil (natural bitumen).

 “The theme is very relevant, today new technologies and new types of raw materials are being discussed a lot, and we have to use our competitive advantage in the as far as this direction is concerned”, said Rustam Minnikhanov. According to him, today it is economically more reasonable to use this kind of raw material rather than go to offshore areas.

As it is known the total resources of natural bitumen in Russia are evaluated to be tens of billion of tons (in Tatarstan – up to 7 billion) and are characterized by extremely low exploration. Because of the complexity, and hence the high cost of such raw materials extraction from mineral resources in Russia no one has dealt with this problem at industrial scale. In Tatarstan they believe that the development of this alternative kind of hydrocarbons could be a new strategic direction for the country's oil industry. Since 2006 “Tatneft” has been carrying out pilot work at Ashalchinskoye field.

President of the Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Russia Gennady Schmal gave a presentation on the state's role in the innovative development of oil industry. According to him, oil, gas and coal will govern until the end of this century in power industry. In Russia the role of oil and gas is too high, therewith Russia lags behind the U.S. in this area of ​​investment as far as the quantity and quality of oil refining are concerned. The situation in our country is characterized by a small volume of drilling, new large fields are not developed, and significantly less money is spent on science as compared to advanced countries. According to him the main problem is an unjust tax system (65-67% of revenue in the Russian oil industry are used to pay taxes). It does not stimulate oil producers to invest in and develop new fields.

As for Tatarstan, as noted by Gennady Schmal, the Republic's leadership pays continuous attention to oil industry with small oil companies operating best and new technologies being better implemented.

Reports were also made by the Institute of Oil and Gas Problems of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences.

The next item on the program of Rustam Minnikhanov’s visit to “Kazan Fair” was the participation in the round table on the expansion of the application of domestic petrochemical products in road and capital construction. The forum was attended by representatives of organizations and companies related to the development and manufacture of such products, and its potential consumers.

 “The Republic has a huge potential, here there are the largest producers of polymers, rubber resin, road materials, and we should be leaders in this field”, he said addressing to the participants of the round table. “We have to use all component base for road and construction areas and car parts production”, said the President.  According to him, the main objectives are to reduce costs and improve the quality of roads, especially in our difficult climatic conditions. Only advanced materials can extend the life of road surface. “Our task is to bring together all the parties to reach their teamwork, monitor the international experience in this field, and  give the idea of new materials to specialized educational institutions at the training stage,” - said the head of the Republic.

Upon reporting on great opportunities of the Republic’s petrochemistry Director General of “Tatneftekhiminvest-holding” OJSC Rafinat Yarullin said that not all people know about the potential use of its products.

Minister of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the Republic of Tatarstan Irek Faizullin believes that the absence of production of cement, rolled metal products and window glass in the Republic can be to some extent compensated by the use of polymers and the creation of new and improved compositions. He thought the recycling of used polymers to be also relevant.

Minister of Transport and Road Facilities of the Republic of Tatarstan Lenar Safin dwelled, in particular, on the problem of insufficient quality of road bitumen and the ways of solving it. He expressed his intention to use the natural bitumen the development of which is being carried out by “Tatneft”. Now we are talking about experimental processing of this raw material by Kichuyskaya oil refining plant. Road theme was developed by a representative of “Tatneftedor” who found it necessary to modify road bitumen by polymer additives.