Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat (Russian: Газпром нéфтéхим Салават, IPA:[ɡɐsˈpromnʲɪftʲˈeximsalavˈɑt]) is a Russian petrochemicals company headquartered in the city of Salavat in Bashkortostan. The company specializes in the processing of hydrocarbons into approximately 150 different petrochemicals, fertilizers and petroleum products, such as gasoline and fuel oil. As of 2024, the company controls three main plants in the city of Salavat, making it the largest petrochemical production complex in Russia. This includes an oil refinery and two additional plants that produce monomers and gas-based chemicals. In recent years, the complex has received criticism for its environmental record from Rosprirodnadzor,[2][3][4] and also for its safety record.[5] Until February 2011, the company was known as Salavatnefteorgsintez (Russian: Салаватнефтеоргсинтез, lit.Salvat Oil Organic Synthesis).[6]
History
Plans for a new hydrogenation plant, known as Plant No. 18, were originally conceived for the city of Chernogorsk in Khakassia. Construction on the new plant commenced in 1946, with most of the equipment for the new plant being appropriated from Germany at the end of the Second World War. After this equipment was transported to the city for reassembly, the government decided to relocate the plant to Bashkortostan in response to the rapid expansion of crude oil production in the region at the time. The plans to merge the hydrogenation plant with other oil refining facilities were approved by the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union in January 1948. It was then approved by the government of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which specified the final location of the plant in the village of Bolshoy Allaguvat. The Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic also approved the construction of a new city for 25,000 inhabitants in the area surrounding the village of Musino.
Construction commenced in June 1948 after the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union approved the final plans on March 30, 1948, and set production targets for the plant. This included work on the main chemical gas and hydrogenation plants, in addition to a thermal power station, a catalyst plant and other auxiliary facilities. The catalyst plant was the first of these facilities to enter operation in 1954, before the refinery entered service in 1955. Over the next two decades, the complex transformed into the largest petrochemical plant in the Soviet Union, with several new production units built to meet the demands of the eighth five-year plan. As a result, the plant produced significant quantities of ammonia, urea, styrene, butyl and fatty alcohols. This is as well as maintaining the capacity to process crude with a high sulfur content from local oil fields located to the north of Bashkortostan. As a result, the plant was awarded the Order of Lenin for meeting its production targets.
By 1975, the plant had doubled its production of ammonia and urea within five years under the ninth five-year plan. To meet these targets, the urea and ammonia production facilities were reconstructed, and Salavat became the largest producer of fertilizer in the Soviet Union, manufacturing over one million tons per year. By the end of the decade, the plant had also started to produce ethylene, polystyrene and glycol. It adopted modern processes, such as catalytic reformation and hydrocracking, to increase production and by the mid-1980s, it was processing approximately one-quarter of all Bashkir crude, and all the condensate produced in Orenburg Oblast.
The expansion in production capacity continued until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when the company was forced to halt the production of any products that were unprofitable. The economic crisis that affected the Russian Federation throughout the 1990s also forced the plant to shutter facilities due to a lack of both raw materials and customers. However, production began to increase again towards the end of the decade. By the beginning of the 21st century, the plant had begun a program of major investment, reconstructing and modernizing various facilities within the Salavat petrochemical complex. It included increasing the production of light petroleum products to three million tons per year, and the production of bitumen to three hundred thousand tons per year.[6]
In January 2011, Salavatnefteorgsintez changed its name to Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat, taking the name of its majority shareholder. The company was listed on the MICEX stock exchange until May 30, 2014, when Gazprom initiated a full takeover at 5,380 rubles per share.[7] It was then reorganized in 2016 as a limited liability company within the same ownership group. At present, Gazprom Pererabotka holds a 99.9999999978% stake in the company, with Gazprom serving as the sole shareholder of Gazprom Pererabotka.
