PMP: 29 years of engineering unique facilities

PMP history began in the difficult 90s. The decision to establish the company was made in December 1992 at a meeting between Alexander Dobrovinsky, LUKOIL Vice President on oil refining Vladislav Bazhenov and Chief Engineer of LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez Vladimir Shuverov. At that moment it was decided to close the joint Soviet-French enterprise Petrofit, where A. Dobrovinsky held the position of Technical Director, and to create an organization for catalytic processes engineering on its basis. On April 08, 1993 the closed joint stock company "PMP" (JSC "PMP") was registered.

The name "PMP" is formed from the first letters in the names of cities from which the company founders came from: Petersburg, Moscow and Perm.

The first office of PMP was located in a rented three-bedroom apartment at 7, Vereiskaya Street. At first, all the equipment consisted of couple of tables, chairs, several shelves and computers used by the employees – less than 10 people. Despite the small staff, PMP team has started working on several projects, first of which was detail design of the plant for treatment of exhaust gas from H2S coming from VNIINP-714 additives production plant at Yaroslavl Oil and Lube Refinery named after Mendeleev owner by Manufacturers of oils and additives (Moscow).

However, main PMP client was Oil Company LUKOIL. In 1993, PMP team developed Basic Design for Combined Hydrotreatment Unit of long distillate fraction 70-360°C and Catalytic Reformer (Client - LUKOIL-Kogalymneftegaz). Under another contract, PMP provided services for ordering equipment for Isomerization Unit PI-200 and coordinating the use of existing Parex-2M equipment at PI-200 unit (Clients – LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez; Lengiproneftekhim).

In 1994, PMP started its first egnineering work for LUKOIL-Kogalymneftegaz – reconstruction of CDU-VDU and Bitumen Production Units as part of the Paraffin Solvent Production Unit (PSPU). It was the first experience of constructing mini-refinery in Russia directly at Druzhnoye field deposit owned by LUKOIL.

The difficulty of the work was that the construction had already begun. It was necessary to develop a feasibility study for construction of Motor-Fuel Plant ZMT-250 in a short period of time to increase CDU capacity up to 250 tpy, as well as detail design documentation in parallel with the construction. Ludmila Anikonova, Chief Project Engineer at that time recalls the following: "I won't describe our difficulties, but I can say that ... we worked not for fear, but for conscience, without holidays and weekends. Our enthusiasm was generated by the director". PSPU was commissioned in 1997. This was the beginning of a long-term cooperation between PMP and LUKOIL.

«we worked not for fear, but for conscience, without holidays and weekends. Our enthusiasm was generated by the director»

In 1995 PMP office of became too small for the company, and a larger apartment was rented at 39 Gorokhovaya Street. "Gorokhovaya was a haven for designers, - Ludmila Anikonova writes in her memoirs, - Process, piping, electrical, instrumentation and civil engineers were housed in a three-bedroom apartment. At the beginning their engineering tools (except for the brains) were four used drafting boards and couple of old computers. It is interesting that the first technical archive was located in the closet between bedroom and kitchen".

LUKOIL remained to be the main Client, but PMP worked also with other companies. So, in PMP reference list there are projects performed for Baltika Brewery: in 1996-1998 detail design documentation was developed for technical revamping of several auxiliary buildings, installation of ventilation equipment at bottles loading line of the main production building. One of the first PMP employees, now the Head of Equipment Department, Kirill Etin recalls that "oil sheikhs" even came to the General Director with a request to design a "small oil refining design".

The office on Gorokhovaya Street was rented by PMP for a short time - already in 1996 the company moved to its own building at 207 Ligovsky Prospekt. And in this building PMP has designed the process units which at the time of their commissioning had no analogues in Russia and CIS countries:

• TAME Production Plant as part of Combined Unit KTD-200/700 with capacity 200 tpy. Client – Korimos, Moscow. Licensor –Yarsintez, Yaroslavl. Commissioning – in 2003.

• Diesel Fuel Hydrodewaxing Unit GDS-850 with capacity 850 tpy (LUKOIL-Ukhtaneftepererabotka, Ukhta). Client – Oil Company LUKOIL. Licensor - Süd-Chemie. Commissioning – in 2003

• Isomerization Unit PI-DIG/120 with capacity 120 tpy (LUKOIL-Odessa Refinery, Odessa, Ukraine). Client - Oil Company LUKOIL. Licensor - UOP. Commissioning – in 2004.

« And in this building PMP has designed the process units which at the time of their commissioning had no analogues in Russia and CIS countries»

The undoubted pride of PMP team are "turnkey" facilities developed together with VF "Neftezavodmontazh". Namely – Oil Stabilization Unit USN4-2 (CDU-VDU) with capacity 2 million tpy for Nizhnevartovsk NPO (from signing the contract to start-up – 11 months, commissioning - in 2000) and VGO Light Hydrocracking Unit L-24/8c with capacity 500 thousand tpy for Syzran Refinery, Oil Company ROSNEFT (from signing the contract to start-up – 14 months, commissioning – in 2001).

High quality of Project Documentation developed in a short time contributed to the expansion of the business portfolio, attracting new clients and partners, including such companies as Gazpromneft and Oil Company Rosneft, UOP (Great Britain), Khersonneftepererabotka (Ukraine), PetroKazakhstan Oil Products (Republic of Kazakhstan), Tecnimont KT (Italy), GRIMMA (Germany).

«High quality of Project Documentation developed in a short time contributed to the expansion of the business portfolio, attracting new clients and partners»

On December 15, 2011 PMP opened Branch Office in Rostov-on-Don.

The key personnel of Rostov Branch Office are the employees of design institute Rostovneftekhimproekt. In the 2000s PMP and Rostovneftekhimproekt worked together on many LUKOIL projects. This design institute was the General Designer for all LUKOIL refineries and was mainly engaged in engineering of off-site facilities. In January 2011 Rostovneftekhimproekt has ceased its activities. At the same time, the target of PMP General Director was to increase the number of company employees for participation in construction project of large petrochemical plant in Novy Urengoy, and Alexander proposed to open PMP Branch Office in Rostov-on-Don on the basis of the Rostovneftekhimproekt Institute.

In 2014, PMP moved to the building on 6 Birzhevoy pereulok, in which it remains till today. Since 1993, more than 150 projects developed by PMP have been implemented in the industry, including reconstruction of operating existing facilities and construction of new plants and units. Today the company has 356 employees. Business portfolio includes large facilities of oil and gas sector in Russia, CIS countries, and Europe.

Continuing the tradition of the founders, the company looks into the future with confidence.