Amur Gas Processing Plant is being constructed by Gazprom in the Svobodnensky District of the Amur Region. The plant will have a processing capacity of 49 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 RUB791bn ($12.7bn) project commenced in October 2015. The plant is expected to employ 15,000 people during construction phase and another 3,000 upon completion.
Kollsnes Gas Processing Plant, Norway
The Kollsnes gas processing plant, which became operational in October 1996, processes natural gas from the Troll, Kvitebjørn and Visund fields owned by StatoilHydro in the North Sea.
Details of Amur gas processing plant
The Amur gas processing plant is touted to be Russia’s biggest gas processing facility and also one of the world’s major gas processing facilities, upon completion. A helium production block with an annual capacity of 60 million cubic metres (mcm) will also be a part of the gas processing plant.
The plant will extract ethane, propane, butane, pentane-hexane fraction and helium from natural gas and process it for shipment to China. It will produce 49bcm of processed gas, 3.4 million tonne (mt) of ethane, 2mt of liquefied petroleum gas and 60mcm of helium. 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 will also be opened as part of the project to prepare staff for the management of the processing facility and helium complex. Scheduled to begin operation in 2015, the training centre will be equipped with technology from Schneider Electric and Invensys.
“Feed gas to the plant will be supplied from the Yakutia and Irkutsk gas production centres through the Power of Siberia gas pipeline.”
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.
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 that is scheduled to begin between May 2019 and May 2021.
“Sophisticated and cutting edge German technology from Linde Engineering will be used for constructing the gas processing plant.”
Key players involved with the Amur gas processing plant
Sophisticated and cutting edge German technology from Linde Engineering will be used for constructing the gas processing plant.
NIPIGAZ will be the contractor on the project and will 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.
