Russia Sends Refinery Equipment on Epic 9,000-Kilometer Voyage

(Bloomberg) -- Seven hundred tons of Russian refinery equipment has just completed a journey worthy of a great explorer.

The parts manufactured in Volgograd will be used to upgrade Gazprom Neft PJSC’s Omsk refinery. That’s a trip of 2,599 kilometers (1,615 miles) by land, but the oversized cargo had to be taken by water. That required a journey of more than 9,000 kilometers traversing four rivers, three seas and the frigid waters of the Russian Arctic.

Gazprom Neft will use the equipment to construct a hydro-treating and de-waxing complex at the refinery that can produce winter-grade diesel fuel. The facility -- a 17.5 billion rubles ($270 million) investment to comply with clean air regulations -- will begin operations in 2020, the company said in a statement on Friday.

In the first stage of the epic journey, the cargo was transported along the Volga river, through the Onezhskoye and Ladoga lakes, on to the Neva river and finally into the Gulf of Finland. The second leg was through the Baltic, North and Norwegian seas, skirting the coasts of Finland, Sweden and Norway to get to back to Russian waters in the Gulf of Ob. From there, the third and final portion of the route traversed the Ob and Irtysh rivers to the Omsk refinery.

To contact the reporter on this story: Olga Tanas in Moscow at otanas@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Christopher Sell

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