Gazprom lays foundation for first processing trains at Amur gas complex

PJSC Gazprom has started construction work on major units for subsidiary OOO Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk's (GPB) 42 billion-cu m/year grassroots Amur natural gas processing plant in Russia’s far-east region, about 15-km outside of Svobodny on the banks of the Zeya River (OGJ Online, Dec. 19, 2012).

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin approved and witnessed laying of foundation for the site’s first processing unit In an Aug. 3 ceremony, the government of Russia said in a release.

While construction of infrastructure and other site-preparation activities for the project began in October 2015, this latest stage of what will be a phased construction of the complex’s six 7-cu m/year production lines lays the official groundwork for Amur’s first two processing trains scheduled for startup in May 2021, said Alexei Miller, Gazprom’s chief executive officer.

An integral part of Gazprom’s implementation of its Eastern Gas Program (EGP) to integrate field developments, pipeline, and natural gas production centers in East Siberia and Russia’s Far East, the €11.5-billion Amur complex will process multicomponent gas it receives from EGP’s Irkutsk and Yakutia gas production centers via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline to support Gazprom’s commitment to supply 38 billion cu m/year of Russian natural gas into China over 30 years beginning on Dec. 20, 2019, the formal commissioning date for the Power of Siberia gas trunkline, according to Miller.

In addition to producing about 2.5 million tpy of ethane, 1 million tpy of propane, 500,000 tpy of butane, and 200,000 tpy of pentane-hexane fraction, the Amur gas processing complex also will produce as much as 60 million-cu m/year of helium based on feedstock from the Chayandinskoye field, which together with the company’s other reserves in East Siberia, forms one of the largest helium reservoirs in the world (OGJ Online, July 29, 2015).

The August foundation-laying ceremony follows GPB’s recent contract award to China Gezhouba Group Corp., to provide construction and assembly services for process equipment at Amur, as well as earlier awards to Linde AG for licensing of its proprietary cryogenic gas separation technology for all phases of the gas-processing complex, and to a consortium of Maire Tecnimont SPA subsidiary Tecnimont SPA and Sinopec Engineering (Group) Co. Ltd. subsidiary Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Corp. for all engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, and performance testing services for the project’s utilities, infrastructure, and off-site installations (OGJ Online, July 5, 2017; Jan. 21, 2016).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].