Moscow Refinery

The Moscow Refinery (Московский нефтеперерабатывающий завод) is an oil refinery plant in the Russian capital of Moscow. This refinery has belonged to the Russian state-owned company Gazprom since 2001.

History
In the 1930s, Soviet industrialization led to the need of more oil refineries to fulfill the rising fuel demand. In 1936, the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry approved the construction of a new refinery near the Moskva River in the Moscow area, which began operation in 1938.

World War II
During the Eastern Front of WWII, this refinery was crucial to the Soviet war effort because it provided crucial fuel supplies for the Soviet military. Some of the facilities were also moved to Siberia or Central Asia to prevent capture by Nazi forces.

Because of the importance of the Moscow Refinery to the war effort, the Luftwaffe frequently bombed the plant. The Soviets also constructed a decoy refinery about 3km east of the real plant to protect the plant from bombing. Between 1941 and 1945, the refinery processed an estimated 2.8 million tons of oil.

Postwar Development
In August 1960, a decree from the Presidium of Soviet Russia incorporated the refinery plant into the administrative boundaries of the city of Moscow.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, new units were added into the refinery to expand production range, including for dehydrogenation, producing diesel fuel, polypropylene, and catalytic reforming. After this modernization process, the refinery's capacity rose to about 12 million tons of oil per year.

Russian Era
In 1994, the refinery was organized into a joint-stock company during privatization. The plant was jointly operated by Sibir Energy and the Russian government.

In March 1998, a fire broke out at the refinery, which destroyed a refining unit.

In 2011, the state-owned Gazprom acquired Sibir Energy and the refinery became entirely state-owned.