Amur Gas Processing Plant, Amur Region

Amur gas processing plant is being constructed in the Svobodnensky District of Russia to be the biggest natural gas processing facilities in the world. Credit: Gazprom.

The design processing capacity of the plant is 42 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year. Credit: Gazprom.

The start-up of the plant’s first two production lines is expected in 2021. Credit: kaiser-v / Shutterstock.

Amur gas processing plant is being constructed by Gazprom in the Svobodnensky District of the Amur Region in Russia.

It is believed to be the biggest natural gas processing facility in the world upon completion. The plant will have a design processing capacity of 42 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year.

Designed to extract important components from natural gas, the gas processing plant is a valuable link in the process of supplying natural gas to China through the eastern route.

Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk, a part of Gazprom Group, and NIPIGAZ formed a partnership in July 2015 for designing, coordinating equipment and material supplies and construction management of the Amur Gas Processing Plant.

Construction on the RUR791bn ($12.7bn) project commenced in October 2015. The first two production lines of the plant are expected to be commissioned in 2021. The plant is expected to reach its design capacity by 2025. The facility is expected to employ 15,000 people during construction phase and another 3,000 upon completion.

Details of Amur gas processing plant

Spanning approximately 800ha, the plant will have six production lines and will be the Russia’s biggest gas processing facility. A helium production block with an annual capacity of 60 million cubic metres (mcm) will also be a part of the gas processing plant. In addition to gas and helium, the plant will also extract ethane, propane, butane, pentane-hexane fraction and helium from natural gas and process it for shipment to China. It will produce 42bcm of processed gas, approximately 2.5 million tonne (mt) of ethane, 1mt propane, around 500,000t of butane, and 200,000t of pentane-hexane fraction a year. Ethane produced at the plant will be transferred to SIBUR gas chemical facility to be used for producing polyethene.

A state-of-the-art training centre was opened by Peton as part of the project to prepare staff for the management of the processing facility and helium complex. The training centre is equipped with technology from Schneider Electric and Invensys. A total of 400 operators will finish the training in the centre by 2022.

Feed gas supply to the Amur gas processing plant

Feed gas to the plant will be supplied from the Yakutia and Irkutsk gas production centres through the Power of Siberia gas pipeline.

Process trains of the gas processing plant will be commissioned in phases in accordance with the development of the production centres in the Yakutia and the Irkutsk Region.

The Yakutia and Irkutsk gas production centres will source gas from the Chayandinskoye and Kovyktinskoye fields, respectively. The Chayandinskoye field has gas reserves of 1.2tcm and the Kovyktinskoye field has 1.5tcm of gas reserves. These production centres are being developed as part of the state-run the Eastern Gas Programme.

The Power of Siberia gas pipeline is designed to supply natural gas from the Irkutsk and Yakutia gas production centres to the Russian Far East and China. Traversing 4,000km, the pipeline will cover the Irkutsk Region, the Republic of Yakutia and the Amur Region. The 61bcm pipeline is currently under construction.

Financing

The project involves an estimated investment of $12.7bn, which is being provided by 22 Russian, European and Asian banks, of which 14 Japanese and European banks will provide up to €3.66bn ($4bn) under the insurance cover for 17 years by Western export credit agencies. Additional €1bn ($1.1bn) will be sourced on uncovered basis for 15 years.

Chinese banks including Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corporation, and China Development Bank will provide €3.4bn ($3.7bn) as loan facility with a term of 15 years.

The Russian financial institutions, including Gazprombank, Sberbank, VTB Bank, Otkritie Bank, and VEB.RF will provide €1.08bn ($1.1bn) and RUR170bn ($2.7bn) as multi-currency credit lines. A part of this amount will be covered by the Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance (EXIAR).

VEB.RF committed up to €500m ($554.1m) for the development of the gas processing plant in December 2019.

Marketing of processed gas

A purchase and sale agreement was signed between Gazprom and CNPC in May 2014 for the supply of Russian gas via the eastern route that involves the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. The agreement is for a 30-year supply of 38bcm of gas a year.

Key players involved with the Amur gas processing plant

Sophisticated and cutting edge German technology from Linde Engineering is used for constructing the gas processing plant.

NIPIGAZ is the contractor on the project and is responsible to perform various functions ranging from documentation, supplying equipment and materials to performing construction and installation. The plant will be transferred to Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk in ready state.

Peton has been selected to design the process units for cryogenic treatment of gas and liquefaction of helium, main off-site facilities and piping and instrumentation diagrams. Front-end engineering design (FEED) development, training and project documentation will also be provided by Peton.

China Petroleum Engineering & Construction (CPECC) received contract for the construction, manufacturing and supply of the equipment for the plant, in April 2017. It will also build the booster compressor shops and gas dehydration, purification and fractionation units.

Rönesans Holding received contract worth $1.6bn for the construction of exterior facilities of the plant in 2018. Its subsidiary Renaissance Heavy Industries will develop roads and communication network between the units, LNG tank with a load rack, a single operation unit with integrated facility management system and multiple energy, administrative and auxiliary facilities.

Tecnimont is responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and performance test activities for the utilities, infrastructure and off-site facilities of the plant. SIBUR is developing the 1.5mtpa capacity ethylene facility in the plant.

Das Global Logistik is responsible for the transportation of oversized cargo to the plant. Other contractors include Dorce Prefabricated Building and Construction Industry.