10 of the largest (and most promising) chemical investment projects in Russia and the CIS region estimated to be worth over $60 billion in total investment, ranging from steam crackers, gas processing facilities, polymer production to methanol and large-scale GTL.
The projects are at the various stages of implementation from the pre-investment phase and FEED to technology and contractor selection.
Estimated investment: over $7 billion
AMUR GAS CHEMICAL COMPLEX
According to the official plans, ethane from Gazprom’s Amur Gas Processing Plant (GPP) will be subsequently supplied to technologically connected SIBUR’s Amur Gas Chemical Complex with a planned capacity to produce approximately 1.5Mt of polyethylene per annum.
The dates for completing the construction and reaching the design capacity will largely depend on the construction schedule of Gazprom’s project.
Estimated investment: over $2 billion
GAS PROJECT IN EASTERN SIBERIA
According to the official plans, ethane from Gazprom’s Amur Gas Processing Plant (GPP) will be subsequently supplied to technologically connected SIBUR’s Amur Gas Chemical Complex with a planned capacity to produce approximately 1.5Mt of polyethylene per annum.
The dates for completing the construction and reaching the design capacity will largely depend on the construction schedule of Gazprom’s project.
Estimated investment: over $2 billion
GAS PROJECT IN EASTERN SIBERIA
One of the biggest producers of oil and gas in Russia, Irkutsk Oil Company, is implementing a large-scale gas multi-billion project to take advantage of the vast gas resources in its fields and license blocks in Eastern Siberia.
From 2018 to 2022, the company plans to upgrade the gas processing plant with polymer production facilities to utilize ethane-rich gas. The expected capacity of the polyolefin plant is 500,000 tons of polyethylene (LLDPE and HDPE) per year with a possible extension of up to 1 million.
Estimated investment: over $4 billion
SOCAR GPC
Azerbaijan, an oil-rich country bounded by the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, is actively working on a promising petrochemical complex to be built in Garadagh, 15 km south of Baku.
The capacity of a single train gas processing plant will be 10 billion m3 per annum. Petrochemical facilities will be comprised of a steam cracker, swing polyethylene unit and other units. The plant will produce approximately 600,000 tons of polyethylene and 120,000 tons of propylene per annum.
ING bank, China Development Bank (CDB) and Russian Gazprombank are the financial consultants of the project.
The plants are scheduled to be commissioned in 2021.
Estimated investment: $3-9 billion
NEW OLEFIN COMPLEX IN TATARSTAN
NKNK’s new olefin complex will be built in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, currently Eastern Europe’s largest petrochemical hub. In the first expansion stage, it will have the capacity to produce 600,000 tonnes of ethylene and over 600,000 tonnes of other chemical products per year. The annual production capacity will be doubled in the future through the addition of a further plant.
The new olefin plant is scheduled to go on stream in 2022.
Estimated investment: over $4 billion
UZBEKISTAN GTL
Only a handful of XTL projects outside of China are expected to enter construction within the next three years, one of which is in Uzbekistan, one of the world’s top 15 gas producers.
In early 2017, the company began construction of a GTL-plant for the production of synthetic liquid fuel. In accordance with the approved feasibility study of the project, the plant will process 3.6 billion cubic meters of gas and produce about 1.5 million tons of diesel fuel, kerosene, naphtha, and LPG annually. Haldor Topsoe’s synthesis gas technology is the first step of the Sasol’s Slurry Phase Distillate Process, and Hyundai Engineering is the EPC partner.
Anticipated start timeframe from 2019 to 2022.
Estimated investment: over $2,5 billion
KAZAKHSTAN PETCHEM PROJECT
In December 2017, the project has finally moved forward and gave a go-ahead to CB&I, Houston, to proceed with project management services for a propane dehydrogenation unit (PDH) and a polypropylene plant in the western Atyrau region of Kazakhstan.
According to KPI’s website, the Atyrau integrated gas chemical complex will use natural gas from the Tengiz and Kashagan oil fields as the feedstock for petrochemical products for domestic and export markets. The complex represents the first component of a plan to develop a “petrochemical cluster” in western Kazakhstan
A revised timeline for the start-up of either phase of the planned complex has yet to be revealed.
Estimated investment: up to $14 billion
EASTERN PETROCHEMICAL COMPANY IN RUSSIA’S FAR EAST
Rosneft’s project is certainly among the top candidates for the most long-awaited projects in Russia with huge potential and yet serious challenges. The implementation largely depends on a number of external factors including feedstock supplies and a lack of infrastructure in the region.
The project is divided into several stages including construction of a refinery with a capacity of up to 12.5 million tons and a petrochemical complex processing 3.4 million tons of feedstock.
The complex is predicted to go live before 2022.
Estimated investment: up to $14 billion
NEW METHANOL PLANT IN SAKHA REPUBLIC (RUSSIA)
A large-scale plant will be built on the eastern bank of the River Lena in the Yakutia region, near gas fields belonging to the Yakutsk Fuel and Energy Co. (YATEC). It will produce up to 1.75 million tonnes of methanol for sale in Asia-Pacific markets, including China, Japan, and South Korea.
Yakutia contains almost 14 tcm of natural gas in total reserves, but monetizing these resources has been difficult, owing to scarce infrastructure and limited local demand. The region will be connected to the growing Chinese gas market once the Power of Siberia pipeline comes online in late 2019. But state-owned Gazprom is to have exclusive rights to the pipeline, leaving privately owned gas fields stranded without an export route.
It was previously reported that the facility is due online in the first half of 2022.
Estimated investment: up to $6,3 billion
NAKHODKA FERTILIZER PLANT
NFP is one of the world’s largest investment projects for the construction of a methanol and nitrogen fertilizers plant in the Primorsky region in Russia. The Plant would produce 1.8 mln tonnes of commercial methanol (Stage 1) and 1.8 mln tonnes of ammonia (Stage 2) annually. Urea production is an option for Stage 3.
The cost of production is expected to be about $ 80-90 per ton of production – so far this is one of the lowest indicators in the world.
Estimated completion of construction and commissioning works is 2022.
