Gazprom Neft has registered a business in the Omsk Oblast — Gazpromneft-Graphitek — which will be responsible for managing the company’s new project to develop a modern graphite-electrode production facility. The future plant — which will be located in the “Avangard” special economic zone (SEZ) — will be able to produce more than 45,000 tonnes of high-tech products (heavy-duty electrodes) for Russia’s metallurgy industry, every year.

Graphite electrodes are a key element in producing high-grade electrical steel. Building this cutting-edge facility is strategically important in ensuring the Russian metallurgy industry’s independence from foreign supplies — most of these products being currently imported into Russia from abroad.

The new Gazpromneft-Graphitek plant will form part of the company’s integrated production cluster in the region, bringing together a number of high-tech facilities — the Gazprom Neft Omsk Refinery, the Omsk Lubricants Plant, and a future project to develop Russia’s first oil-refining catalyst production plant.

“Gazprom Neft’s high-tech graphite-electrode plant will ensure domestic industry has access to strategically important products for the metallurgy industry. The company’s new plant represents our contribution to decarbonising Russia’s metallurgy industry — using modern electrodes will halve steel production’s carbon footprint.”

Anatoly Cherner Deputy Chairman of the Management Board, Gazprom Neft