New Developments in Hydrocarbon Industry Discussed at TNHI Board Meeting

The meeting started with Rector Ilshat Gafurov receiving a letter of appreciation from President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov.

Then Vice-Rector Danis Nurgaliev spoke about the University’s projects in the petroleum industry. SAU EcoOil, as he said, now unites over 20 labs and centers. They mostly research viscous oils and bitumen. The two main groups of projects are catalysts/refining and extraction. Heavy oils are the center of attention now because of their huge presence on (or under, as it were) the Tatarstan’s land.

President Minnikhanov recommended working especially hard on key catalysts because they must be fully provided by local manufacturers – and that is still not the case as of now. Luckily, KFU’s results in this area are plentiful: dehydrogenation of isoamylenes, dehydrogenation of isoparaffins, dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene – these are only some of the examples of processes that have been perfected. A catalyst trademarked KDI-M has been produced by NKNK since October 2014.

As for extraction technology, significant progress has been made in the last two years in deposit modelling. Modelling is nowadays essential for sufficient recovery factors – all the more so because of recent slumps in oil prices. The most ambitious goal here is to create in situ recovery tech with minimum environmental damage and 80% recovery factors.

Advisor to the President Rinat Muslimov praised KFU’s choice of deposit modelling as its major field of expertise.