Methanol unit is the heart of the plant

«Great methanol! Great people! Great stories!» – these words became the formula of the festive evening dedicated to 40 years of methanol production at Metafrax Chemicals JSC. On September 20th, the unit veterans, employees and guests gathered at the “Severny” Palace of Culture to celebrate the anniversary of their esteemed department together.

Before the celebration, its participants looked at chronicles of “Great methanol” with interest; located at the foyer, it was carefully compiled by the production workers. It contains several albums with photos and descriptions of milestones and significant dates.The first one is dated May 17th, 1977. On this day, a contract was signed for the supply of equipment and the construction of a methanol production plant in Gubakha with a capacity of 750 thousand tons per year.At 10:07 on September 22nd, 1984, the shift of Sergey Konovalov received the first batch of crude methanol at the new unit after five intensive years of construction.

- Methanol unit is the heart of the plant: everything starts with it, it creates rhythm and establishes momentum, - noted Albert Khudaibirdin, the Managing Director for Production at Metafrax Chemicals, during his congratulations to production veterans and team. –Today’s production capacity is created by more than technologies and equipment. First and foremost, it is created by people who control this complex process. Many guests who have visited the plant and the methanol production site note a strong production practice, cleanliness and order; they are surprised that the methanol unit is already 40 years old. This indicates that there are people who support their department in each section of production. Many thanks to the veterans and may the company develop further!

Vladimir Daut, the Advisor of Managing Director for Production at Metafrax Chemicals, spoke about the hardships of Gubakha’s residents in obtaining the first batches of methanol during his celebratory speech.

- The construction of the М-750 complex became a powerful stimulus for the development of both the company and Gubakha as a whole, - highlighted Vladimir Daut, – The first two years of construction were quite difficult, but these hardships did not scare the company’s management and everyone participated in this construction process with great enthusiasm. During the start-up, people literally spent days and nights at work in order to eliminate all bottlenecks and learn to operate the new unit. In recent years, we have performed substantial overhauls, which allowed us to increase the production output to 3 500 tons per day. The experience that we gained allowed us to avoid many mistakes during the construction of the new Ammonia-Urea-Melamine complex, which is integrated with methanol production. I sincerely thank the production veteran, all workers and repair services that participate in the operation of the unit.

Viktor Maier, the Deputy Managing Director for Production, continued the marathon of congratulations.

- The construction of the М-750 methanol complex became a defining event. Gubakha received infrastructure – a new bridge, schools, kindergartens. We, on the other hand, received state-of-the-art technology for methanol production, then-modern equipment and, most importantly, we received a strong incentive for the development of our company, - the manager noted. – As of today, we have produced 33 million 790 tons of methanol. Thank you to the production veterans and the team for their responsible and professional labour. I would like to acknowledge the specialists who made a significant contribution to the initial operation of the unit, to overhaul and technical revamping, - Dmitry Kotsuba, Vladimir Khvorostyany, Mark Zuckerman, Nikolay Ilyukhin and Vladimir Daut. I offer congratulations on the anniversary to the production team and I wish health and longevity to the veterans as well as success and accident-free operation to the workers.

During his speech, Sergey Sitnikov, the Head of the Methanol Production, recalled the first production managers who were there at the very beginning, who formed the team and laid the groundwork that has served as a firm foundation for the unit’s development for 40 years. He thanked the veterans and colleagues for competence, consistency of operations and strong traditions.

The evening continued with the award ceremony for distinguished production workers. In the “Irreplaceable Employee” category, Albert Khudaibirdin presented letters of acknowledgement to Sergey Sitnikov, to Antonina Mudraya, the Head of the Laboratory, to Dmitry Kotsuba, the Chief Specialist of Automated Process Control System, and to Aleksandr Shvydkov, a Comprehensive Building Maintenance worker. In the “Mentors” category, the following were awarded: Aleksandr Kozyrev, a compressor unit machinist; equipment operators Valery Rogalev, Yuri Permyakov, and Aleksey Babkin. The following were awarded among those in the "Best in their field" category: equipment operators Andrey Kropachev, Andrey Gridnev, Lyutsina Yurlova, Aleskandr Pozdeev, Marat Fakhrutdinov, Denis Dudin, Evgeny Soloviev; Oleg Yurnyuk, a compressor unit mahinist, boiler operators Sergey Davydov, Georgy Raspopov; Aleksey Lestov, an instrumentation and automation fitter; Maria Rybakova, an economist; Natalya Ledneva, a secretary-timekeeper. In the "Curator" category, Vladimir Osipchuk, a corporate museum specialist, received a letter of acknowledgement. The manager also presented a Certificate of Commendation of the Governor of Perm Krai for great contribution to the development of the chemical industry and many years of fruitful labour to Vladimir Daut.

Aleksandr Grom, the chairman of the Metafrax Chemicals’ trade union, addressed the people of the hour with congratulations. In addition, he presented the letters of acknowledgement from the regional organization of the Russian Chemical Trade Union to equipment operators Sergey Petrov, Viktor Vaganov, Sergey Deder, Vladimir Fionin; to Dmitry Morozov, the chief process engineer; to Aleksandr Shvydkov, a Comprehensive Building Maintenance worker; to Irina Gordeeva, a senior warehouse keeper; and to Aleksandr Kozyrev, a machinist.

During that festive evening, the anniversary celebrants were presented with creative gifts by Nataliya Safiulina, the soloist of the Perm provincial orchestra, the “Friends” ballet group and soloists of the “Hearts” vocal project show.