Rostov-on-Don, Russia based project logistics provider RTL LLC signed a contract last year with leading Italian manufacturer Walter Tosto for the delivery of equipment to Russian oil and gas company Tatneft’s construction facility in Nizhnekamsk. The contract involved the delivery of 15 units, including a large hydrotreating reactor measuring 34 m x 3.5 m x 4.2 m and weighing over 206 tonnes.
RTL was tasked with transporting the equipment, which was produced in Walter Tosto’s facility in Bucharest, Romania, to the port of Constanta by road. The out-of-gauge reactor was loaded onto a 14- axle trailer with a carrying capacity of 250 tonnes, before being transported over 280 km to the Black Sea port by road, accompanied by police escorts. At the Romanian port, two 500-tonne capacity cranes were used to load the reactor and other equipment onboard a vessel for shipment across the Black Sea to the Russian port of Novorossiysk. On arrival at the port, the equipment was unloaded from the vessel in pieces and loaded directly onto railcars. The 206-tonne reactor was lifted onto a bespoke 16-axle railcar using two Liebherr mobile harbour cranes. RTL then coordinated the rail transport of the cargo, in cooperation with Russian Railways (RZD), from Novorossiysk to a railway station near Tatneft’s site in Nizhnekamsk, where the cargo was unloaded for road transport to its final destination. The heavy reactor was lifted off the rail car and onto a 12-axle self-propelled modular transporter (SPMT) using a 400-tonne capacity Liebherr crane, before being delivered to the plant.