OOO Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk (GPB), a subsidiary of PJSC Gazprom, and general contractor partner NIPIgazpererabotka (Nipigaz), Moscow, have let a contract to Linde AG, Munich, to provide processing technology for the 49 billion-cu m/year grassroots Amur natural gas processing plant now under construction near Svobodny in Russia’s far-east Amur region (OGJ Online, July 29, 2015).
Linde will deliver licensing for cryogenic gas separation technology for the Amur plant, including engineering and supply of units for ethane and natural gas liquids extraction and nitrogen rejection, as well as for helium purification, liquefaction, and storage, Linde said.
Awarded by Nipigaz in December 2015, the binding engineering and supply contract covers all five phases of the plant’s construction, with Linde’s scope of work under Phase 1 to include delivery of two ethane and NGL (propane, butane, pentane, hexane) extraction and nitrogen rejection units, as well as one helium production unit.
A value of the contract was not disclosed.
Gazprom and Linde also have entered a separate strategic agreement outlining plans to further cooperation and joint execution of Gazprom’s existing and future projects in the natural gas sector, the technology and engineering services provider said.
Recently signed by Gazprom Chairman Alexey Miller and Linde Chief Executive Wolfgang Buchele, the agreement involves the companies’ enhanced collaboration on:
• Process technologies, engineering, and services related to the treatment and liquefaction of natural gas.
• Localization of respective equipment production in Russia.
• Helium production, including joint investment in, production, and operation of helium plants.
Amur construction update
Following additional support and commitments from Russian government agencies last September, Gazprom officially broke ground on construction of the Amur gas plant’s first processing train in October 2015, according to an Oct. 14, 2015, news release from the Russian operator.
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 Amur plant 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 a 30-yr period beginning sometime between May 2019 and May 2021 (OGJ Online, May 21, 2014).
In addition to producing ready-for-sale methane, ethane, propane, butane, and pentane-hexane fraction, the Amur gas processing complex also will include a 60 million-cu m/year helium plant to be supplied by 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, Dec. 19, 2012).
The Amur gas processing plant also will connect to PSJC Sibur Holding’s long-planned integrated ethylene, polyethylene, and polypropylene production complex under construction at Tobolsk in Western Siberia’s Tyumen region (OGJ Online, Feb. 20, 2015), which will use Amur’s 3.4 million-tonne/year ethane output to produce polyethylene
Planned to coincide with development of gas production capacities in Yakutia and the Irkutsk region under the EGP framework (OGJ Online, May 11, 2015; Dec. 19, 2013), the Amur plant’s five-phase construction is scheduled to be completed in 2024, Linde said.
Gazprom has said it expects to commission Amur’s first processing train sometime in 2018.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
