Amur Gas Processing Plant

 Amur Gas Processing Plant (Amursky Gas Processing Plant) — a gas processing enterprise near the city Free Of the Amur region Of Russia. The project belongs toTo Gazprom. The plant was launched on June 9, 2021.

The plant will extract methane-related gases from natural gas: ethane, propane, butane and other heavier hydrocarbon fractions, as well as helium, which is then supplied to the helium hub in Vladivostok. It is expected that the Amur gas Processing Plant will become the second largest natural gas processing plant (42 billion m3 per year) and the world's largest helium producer (up to 60 million m3 per year).

In the immediate vicinity of the gas processing plant, SIBUR started construction in August 2020 Amur Gas Chemical Complex (AHCC) for processing ethane into ethylene and polyethylene, as well as synthesis of polypropylene from AGPZ raw materials.

Description

The plant will extract helium, ethane and other hydrocarbons from natural gas supplied to China via the pipeline."The Power of Siberia". The plant will be supplied with natural gas from the newly developed territories.Gazprom of Chayandinsky and Kovykta deposits.

The project is owned by Gazprom, which invests a third of the total amount of funds in construction. The rest is accounted for by Russian, Chinese and European lenders. The total budget is 19 billion euros. As of December 2019, Gazprom received 786 billion rubles from European, Chinese, Japanese and Russian credit organizations as part of project financing for the construction of the plant.

The Amur gas Processing Plant will consist of six technological lines. The design capacity of the plant is 42 billion m3 of gas per year. The planned production of ethane is about 2.5 million tons per year, propane-about 1 million tons, butane-about 500 thousand tons, pentane-hexane fraction-about 200 thousand tons, helium-up to 60 million cubic meters. At the same time, the construction plan provides for reserve territories for placing two additional technological lines that can increase the volume of finished products to 56 billion rubles.

The number of jobs is about 3000. The plant area is 800 hectares.

The plant is planned to be equipped with a strict environmental control system that will monitor the composition of industrial emissions, atmospheric gas content, noise and radiation levels, as well as the quality of wastewater treatment — all wastewater is supposed to be treated up to fisheries standards.

In addition to the plant itself, there are plans to create related infrastructure: access roads, a pier on the Zee River, railway communications and a residential microdistrict in Svobodny for employees of the future enterprise.

The launch year is 2024. It will reach full capacity on January 1, 2025. By words According to Alexey Miller, the first stage of construction of two technological lines will be put into operation in April 2021, and a new line will be put into operation every next December until 2025.

History

The designer and developer is SIBUR's NIPIGAZ project organization. Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk LLC (part of the Gazprom Group)is the investor and customer of the Amur Gas Processing Plant construction project. The Linde Group, a German company, is the supplier of the main technological equipment for cryogenic gas separation to produce helium and other components for petrochemicals.

Construction

Construction work began on October 14, 2015. Construction is managed by NIPIGAZ.

In May 2019, construction progress reached 33 % of the total volume. About 16 thousand people and 2 thousand units of construction equipment are involved in the work.

In March 2019, the first 8 ball storage tanks for finished products were delivered to the site of the future plant. During the works, the first ball storage tanks for LPG were delivered to the construction site of the gas processing plant, and the foundation works for the installation of equipment of the third technological line were completed. In addition, at the first launch complex of the Amur Gas Processing Plant, the builders completed the installation of two raw gas expanders. In total, there will be 20 such tanks with a volume of 2,400 m3 each, combined into three storage parks.

In the spring of 2019, the preparation of foundations for large-capacity equipment of the plant's third technological line (cryogenic gas separation and helium fine purification units) was completed. The equipment is planned to be delivered by sea and river transport at the end of June.

In mid-July 2019, a methane extraction column was installed on the third processing line of the plant — the largest equipment of the third line, weighing 1014 tons and 87 m long. Columns of the first and second stages were installed in 2018.

In March 2021, the overall progress of construction of the Amur Gas processing Plant reached 74.6 %.

The first stage of the Amur Gas Processing Plant was launched on June 9 , 2021.