Atyrau Refinery in Kazakhstan Advances Floating Roof Conversion for 75 Storage Tanks

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 17, KazMunayGas announced that the Atyrau Refinery is continuing to implement its floating roof conversion program for oil product storage tanks. A total of 75 crude oil and petroleum product storage tanks across the plant require the installation of dedicated internal floating roofs. To date, 71 of them have been completed or included in the 2026 implementation scope, while the remaining 4 are planned for conversion in a subsequent phase of environmental projects.

According to the implementation schedule published by the Atyrau Refinery, a total of 51 storage tanks had floating roofs installed in 2018, 7 more were added between 2022 and 2023, and another 2 were completed in 2025. Since the beginning of 2026, the plant has completed floating roof installation on 6 storage tanks and plans to complete 5 more by the end of the year; the remaining 4 will be implemented in the next phase of the environmental remediation program. Under the current plan, the cumulative number completed by the end of 2026 will reach 71, accounting for approximately 94.7% of the total target of 75 storage tanks.

The conversion targets fixed-roof tanks used for storing crude oil and petroleum products. The floating roof is installed inside the tank and moves with changes in the liquid level to reduce the evaporation of oil vapor. KazMunayGas stated that after installing a floating roof, hydrocarbon emissions from a single storage tank can be reduced by up to approximately 90%, while also reducing product evaporation losses.

The project has been continuously advanced this year. In July, during an inspection of the Atyrau Refinery's planned maintenance, KazMunayGas disclosed that 6 storage tanks had completed floating roof installation since the beginning of the year; at that time, it planned to convert 3 more by the end of the year. The latest arrangement in September raises the number of additional conversions before the end of the year to 5, an increase of 2 compared with the July plan.

In August, while advancing investment projects including the renovation of external power infrastructure, a backup gas turbine power plant, and flare gas recovery, the Atyrau Refinery continued to implement the floating roof conversion of storage tanks. The plant planned to process 3.6 million tons of crude oil in the first eight months of this year, and planned to produce more than 1.2 million tons of gasoline, 1.3 million tons of diesel, and approximately 148,000 tons of aviation fuel.