LNG

Gazprom has held a virtual commissioning ceremony for the first production Train at the Amur Gas Processing Plant, one of the world’s largest and part of the “Power of Siberia” project comprising pipeline natural gas for China and LNG for trucks transporting liquid helium as a new Russian Far East export.

Gazprom said the Svobodny thermal power plant has started up to serve the Amur Gas Processing Plant, one of the world’s largest and part of the “Power of Siberia” project comprising pipeline gas for China and LNG for trucks transporting liquid helium as a new Russian Far East export.

Russian natural gas company Gazprom and the German engineering and industrial gases company Linde have signed accords on the LNG and processing project at Ust-Luga west of St. Petersburg and on the Amur Gas Processing Plant in the Russian Far East.

The signings came at a meeting in St. Petersburg between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Wolfgang Reitzle, Board Chairman at Linde, as well as other executives from both companies.

The meeting covered several issues, including the project for the creation of the Gas Processing Complex in Ust-Luga.

Kirill Seleznev, Director General of RusKhimAlyans, and Juergen Nowicki, Chief Executive of Linde Engineering, signed an agreement of intent in the presence of Miller and Reitzle.

The document outlines the main terms and conditions of a prospective Engineering, Procurement and Site Services (EPSS) contract for Linde.

Gazprom and RusGazDobycha, a special purposes company securing gas supplies for Russia’s chemicals industry, are expecting the various facilities at Ust-Luga to require the processing of 45 billion cubic metres of natural gas per annum.

RusKhimAlyans, a 50-50 joint venture between Gazprom and RusGazDobycha, have already signed 20-year commercial contracts for supplies of feed gas and sales gas as well as ethane fraction for chemicals.

Gazprom and RusGazDobycha are implementing the venture and RusKhimAlyans will be the operator. It is the anchor project of the major gas processing and chemical cluster that is being established in the region.

“The complex will have the largest capacity in Russia in terms of gas processing and will be the largest in northwest Europe in terms of LNG production at 13 million tonnes per annum,” said Gazprom.

“In addition to LNG, its commercial products will include ethane fraction, liquefied petroleum gases and pentane-hexane fraction,” it added.

The parties also reviewed current issues of cooperation, including Gazprom’s Amur Gas Processing Plant (GPP) construction.

“Linde’s equipment for cryogenic gas separation and for helium production is employed at the enterprise,” said Gazprom.

“The GPP’s first two production Trains are being prepared for commissioning at the moment,” the Russian company added.

Russian natural gas company Gazprom said more than 30,000 workers were on site to complete the Amur Gas Processing Plant, part of the “Power of Siberia” project already bringing pipeline gas to China and with an affiliated LNG liquefaction plant to fuel trucks carrying containers of liquid helium for export.

The Amur venture is more than 70 percent complete and Gazprom said a recruitment process for the GPP’s future full-time staff was underway.

“Other aspects of the project include the building of a small-scale liquefaction plant for LNG trucking,” said Gazprom.

The company said in its update report that the first two Amur processing lines would be on stream in 2021.

“Start-up and commissioning operations continue at the first two Amur gas trains and external thermal insulation is being installed on the core equipment,” added Gazprom.

“This is the final stage of preparations for load testing,” stated the company.

The construction of the Amur GPP is one of the largest infrastructure projects of Gazprom in Russia’s Far East.

During the 2020 navigation season, 50 pieces of large equipment weighing a total of some 8,000 tons were delivered by sea and river vessels to the Amur GPP’s wharf.

The GPP will receive heat and electricity from the Svobodny thermal power plant.

The construction of the power plant’s main building and structures is already finished. In December 2020, the “Power of Siberia” gas pipeline started feeding gas to the TPP for the purpose of start-up and commissioning of the gas-using equipment.

The Amur plant will process multi-component natural gas received via the “Power of Siberia” gas pipeline from the Yakutia and Irkutsk gas production centres,.

“Valuable components extracted in the course of processing will be used as feedstock for the petrochemical and other industries,” explained Gazprom.

The Amur GPP is being built near the town of and will have final design capacity to process 42 billion cubic metres of per annum of natural gas.

The GPP will include the world’s largest helium production facilities with an annual capacity of up to 60 million cubic metres.

The plant will have six production trains. While the first two lines will start in the coming year, the other four would be consecutively put in operation before the end of 2024.

In addition to natural gas and helium, the GPP’s commercial products will include ethane, propane, butane, and pentane-hexane fraction.

A Gazprom subsidiary called, Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk, is the project company for the Amur GPP. Construction management is being carried out by NIPIGAZ, part of the Sibur Group.

gazprom said a central link in the export system for commercial helium, one of the components that will be extracted at Amur, will be the Logistics Centre for servicing thermally-insulated containers.

“The Centre, which is being set up near the city of Vladivostok, will be the world’s largest hub for delivering liquid helium to the global market,” Gazprom explained.

At present, construction of the hub’s off-site facilities is finished, the core and auxiliary process equipment is installed, and electricity is now being supplied to the Logistics Centre.

“A natural gas liquefaction unit is currently being built with the aim of refueling trucks that will carry the containers,” said Gazprom

The pipeline gas supplies for China started operations in December 2019 via Gazprom’s “Power of Siberia” trunkline from the Chayandinskoye gas field.

In the year since the launch of “Power of Siberia”, Gazprom said a total of 3.84 Bcm had been supplied to China via the trunkline, which was less than the expected 5 Bcm.

Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp. have signed a 30-year supply agreement for Russian gas to be supplied via the eastern route amounting to 38 Bcm per annum once incremental increases had been met over a period of five years.

Russian natural gas giant Gazprom marked the first anniversary of the coming on stream of the first gas pipeline from Russia to China, regarded as competition for LNG, but details released of current pipeline operations and capacities show less than expected year-one deliveries.

Gazprom plans to order Russian-manufactured LNG-powered trucks to transport liquid helium from the Amur Gas Processing Plant, the largest such plant in Russia and second-biggest in the world.

Prior to being fed into “Power of Siberia” natural gas pipeline to China gas undergoes treatment at Amur, producing valuable petrochemicals and gases. 

The construction site of the Amur GPP is located near the town of Svobodny in the Amur Region of the Russian Far East.

Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom, and Sergey Chemezov, Director General of the state-owned Rostec Corp. signed an agreement for the first batch of LNG-powered trucks to be produced.

The vehicles will be made by the Kamaz Group, a subsidiary of Rostec.

“The first 18 LNG-powered trucks that will transport helium will have special thermally-insulated containers and are expected to be delivered in 2021,” said Gazprom.

The Amur Gas GPP has a design capacity of 42 billion cubic metres of gas per year and when fully completed will include the world's largest helium production facilities.

The completed plant will comprise six production lines, with the first two lines slated for commissioning in 2021. 

The remaining lines will be consecutively put into operation before the end of 2024. The Amur plant is expected to reach its design capacity by 2025.

In addition to sales of gas and helium, the plant will produce ethane, propane, butane and pentane-hexane fraction.

Gazprom and Chinese major, China National Petroleum Corp., have signed a 30-year Sales and Purchase Agreement for Russian gas to be supplied via the northern pipeline route, which was partially started up in December 2019 to send limited volumes.

Gazprom, the state-backed Russian natural gas company, has signed project finance documentation with more than 20 global banks for the domestic part of the “Power of Siberia” venture transporting pipeline natural gas to China in competition to LNG.