Oil tanks for a major project

The pipeline conveys crude oil over a length of 1,500 kilometres from the Tengiz oilfield on the Caspian Sea in western Kazakhstan to the Russian shipping port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. Following the latest expansion work, the port now boasts six further oil tanks, each with a capacity of 100,000 metric tons. Their installation involved the placement of 30,000 cubic metres of concrete formulated with modifying admixtures from MC.
With a capacity totalling 1 million metric tons, Novorossiysk has become one of the largest crude oil storage facilities in Russia. Because of the geographic and climatic conditions alone, the construction of the tanks was beset with significant challenges. The distance between the concrete factory and the construction site of 25 kilometres meant transportation through difficult, mountainous terrain. The concrete therefore had to exhibit an open time of at least three hours. The plasticiser Muraplast FK 19 was therefore chosen to significantly increase concrete flowability in combination with a reduced water requirement.
The high temperatures of the region – these regularly lie around the 40° C mark – also had to be taken into account. And last but not least, the concrete also needed to exhibit an especially high degree of water resistance. MC therefore recommended a solution based on the PCE superplasticiser MC-PowerFlow 2695. Combined with the hardening retarder Centrament Retard 310, the result was an extremely strong high-performance concrete offering high resistance to thermal cracking.

With these admixtures from MC, the concrete qualified for a W18 classification, which means that oil could only penetrate through it at pressures upwards of 18 bar. As a special side aspect improving cost-efficiency, the combination of additives also produced a 20% saving in cement consumption.