On 19 October Jurby WaterTech International representatives met with Yukos experts and management.

Jurby WaterTech was represented by the company's president Victor Redko, director of engineering Raimundas Budris, general director of Moscow office Victor Bulgakov, director of water treatment department Tatiana Schetinina, and manager of the project Sergey Zolotykh. The sides discussed cooperation opportunities. Victor Redko familiarised the Yukos representatives with Jurby WaterTech International operation and development plans. Leading experts of the company outlined Jurby cutting-edge water treatment technologies for refining and petrochemical industries. The negotiations centred on the options for water treatment project at Achinsk refinery (Krasnoyarsk Krai).

OilMarket Info: Jurby WaterTech International is an engineering company engaged in water treatment, conditioning and purification for the industry. The company specialises in water treatment project design, recommendations on water conditioning systems operation, turnkey projects, partial and complete upgrading of the operating systems, container-sized installations, wholesale of component parts and materials for water treatment projects. The company also produces chemical agents, inhibitors against corrosion and scale-forming, water treatment biocides. The company operates in refining, power, agrochemical, heavy engineering and food industries.

The 147,000 b/d Achinsk refinery was put online in 1983; the refinery is an integral part of Vostochnaya Neftyanaya Kompaniya (Eastern Oil Company) owned by Yukos.

OilMarket Info: The first meeting of Achinsk refinery and Jurby WaterTech International representatives took place on 12 September. During the visit to Lithuania, the refinery's experts visited Jurby production base, met the company's top management, familiarised themselves with new water treatment technologies, and had an opportunity to see Jurby's completed project at one of the largest in the Baltics Ahema petrochemical plant (Lithuania).

Achinsk refinery is the leader among Yukos' refining assets on environmental management. The refinery's pollution control facilities are highly efficient; Achinsk is the third of Yukos refineries to receive ISO 14000 certification, based on environmental management system, (EMS). Achinsk refinery is one of the few plants in Russia with low-sewage drain system, which enables using rain and melted waters, as well as treated sewage, for the production needs. The refinery has intricate system of purification facilities for mechanical, physico-chemical, and biological treatment, after-purification filters, and UV decontamination.

Starting 2007 Yukos will boost more than four-fold its investment in environmental programmes, including the Achinsk refinery, says Artur Kranke, the deputy head of environmental centre at Yukos RM. In 2007 the company plans to invest over $30mn in the environment, including $10mn in Achinsk refinery projects.