Sibur lets contract for Amur petrochemical complex

PJSC Sibur Holding has let a contract to a consortium led by Maire Tecnimont SPA subsidiary Tecnimont SPA to provide services for Sibur subsidiary Amur GCC LLC’s long-planned Amur gas chemical complex (AGCC), an integrated 1.5 million-tonnes/year polyethylene and polypropylene production complex to be built near Svobodny in Russia’s far-east Amur region (OGJ Online, Sept. 14, 2015).

As part of the €1.2-billion contract, Tecnimont and consortium partners MT Russia LLC, Sinopec Engineering Inc., and Sinopec Engineering Group Co. Ltd. will deliver engineering, procurement, and site services (EPSS) for the AGCC, Maire Tecnimont said on May 5.

Scheduled for mechanical completion in 2024, AGCC is the downstream expansion of the Amur gas development initiative that began with PJSC Gazprom subsidiary OOO Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk’s (GPB) nearby 42 billion-cu m/year grassroots Amur natural gas processing plant (AGPP) now under construction in Svobodny, near the border with China (OGJ Online, Dec. 26, 2019).

The EPSS contract award to Tecnimont for AGCC follows GPB’s earlier €3.9-billion contract award to the service provider and consortium partner Sinopec Engineering subsidiary Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Corp. to provide all engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, and performance testing services for utilities, infrastructure, and off-site installations of the AGPP (OGJ Online, July 5, 2017).

Sibur most recently let a contract to Linde PLC deliver EPSS based on its proprietary technology for AGCC’s cracker, which will receive LPG and ethane fraction feedstock under a long-term contract from GPB’s AGPP (OGJ Online, Feb. 7, 2020).

AGCC-AGPP program

Sibur previously said it expects a proposed increase in the overall amount of ethane fraction and LPG feedstock supplies of up to 3.5 million tpy over time from AGPP will allow AGCC to expand design capacities at the site from an initial 1.5 million tpy of polyethylene to about 2.3 million tpy of polyethylene and 400,000 tpy of polypropylene (OGJ Online, Oct. 4, 2019).

While Sibur has completed preliminary design development and approved configuration as well as capacities for AGCC’s proposed units, the operator has yet to confirm completion of front-end engineering design or final approval for implementation of the petrochemical project.

As of Mar. 31, construction of AGPP was 59% completed, with the first two of six production lines still on schedule for commissioning in 2021 and remaining lines to be consecutively put in operation before yearend 2024, GPB said on Apr. 20.

AGPP is scheduled to reach full operational capacity by 2025