Russia's SIBUR brings associated petroleum gas project in West Siberia

Russian petrochemicals company SIBUR has brought its Vyngapur GPP in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region of West Siberia online, it said Thursday. The plant will use associated petroleum gas produced by nearby fields owned by Gazprom Neft.

SIBUR invested Rb4.8 billion ($153.6 million) in the plant, which will turn associated petroleum gas into dry gas and natural gas liquids, the company said.

Gazprom Neft and SIBUR also signed a memorandum of understanding on using associated petroleum gas in the region Thursday, extending the gas supply deal for the Vyngapur plant to 2022, Gazprom Neft said.

Gazprom Neft said it has five crude producing fields in the region that will supply associated petroleum gas to the new plant: Vyngapurskoye, Novogodnoye, Ety-Purovskoye, Vyngayakhinskoye and Yaraynerskoye.

In mid-May, Gazprom Neft said it expects to increase its associated gas utilization rate to over 80% by the end of 2012-early 2013, up from around 61% currently.

Also Thursday, SIBUR said the first pipes were joined in preparation for construction of its Purovsky Gas Condensate Processing Plant-Tobolsk-Neftekhim pipeline Thursday.

The pipeline will transport gas processed in the Yamal Nenets and Khanty-Mansiisk regions of West Siberia to the company's Tobolsk petrochemicals production site.

SIBUR plans to expand its gas fractionating capacity from 3.8 million mt/year to 6.6 million mt/year at Tobolsk, it said.

SIBUR is also close to completing construction of what it said was Russia's largest polypropylene plant, with a capacity of 500,000 mt/year, at the Tobolsk site.

Since 2007, SIBUR has invested more than Rb20 billion in building and upgrading processing facilities and pipeline infrastructure in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region, it said.