Emission from Atyrau oil refinery stirs up city

On 29 September at the Atyrau Refinery, there was an emission of combustion products. Instantly, photos and videos showing huge clouds of black smoke coming from the refinery chimney were posted by residents on social networks.

Later, on the ‘Telegram” chat channel ‘Akimat of Atyrau Region’ as well as numerous complaints from Atyrau residents, documents appeared containing information, presumably from the Department of Ecology in Atyrau Oblast.

“According to information received from the Atyrau Oil Refinery LLP, it was established, that at 11.15am on 29 September 2019, due to a breakdown in the circulation of the catalyst in the reactor-regenerative unit, raw materials were removed from the catalytic cracking unit. Due to this, there was a short-term release of the products of combustion of regenerators through a flue gas scrubber. It was previously reported the release of combustion products was for a period of five minutes.

Specialists from the Department of Ecology in Atyrau Oblast took and analysed atmospheric air samples outside the sanitary protection zone of the plant. According to the results of the analysis the established standards were not exceeded”.

To quickly translate the document into a more understandable language, a correspondent from ‘AZh’ contacted the Press Service of ANPZ LLP. They replied that as it was a complex technological process an official request was required for its “decryption”.

Anastassiya ALYUSHINA