Gazprom Lands $12.7 Billion to Finish Amur Gas Processing Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--One of the largest financing deals has been agreed by Russia's Gazprom for the completion of the Amur gas processing plant, currently under construction near Svobodny in Russia's far-east Amur region.

The company revealed that financing amounting to 11.4 billion euro ($12.7 billion) will be provided to Gazprom by 22 banks from Europe, Asia, and Russia. It is an unprecedented deal in Gazprom's history and one of Europe's largest in recent years.

"The Amur GPP will become one of the largest gas processing plants in the world," said Alexey Miller, chairman of Gazprom. "Its construction is well underway: as of today, the project is 54% complete. The signing of project finance documentation is a landmark event for this project. Now, the project enjoys support from our long-standing and reliable partners from Europe, Asia, and Russia. Remarkably, for the first time in our history, we have raised project financing from Chinese banks. I am convinced that this transaction will become the foundation for the strengthening and development of mutually beneficial cooperation in Gazprom's key financial markets over the long term."

Construction started in 2015 and the Amur gas processing plant is a key hub for Gazprom's Eastern Gas Program which seeks to bring together gas fields, pipelines, and natural gas production in East Siberia and Russia's Far East. It will employ 15,000 workers at peak during construction and 3,000 employees when fully operational.

The plant, covering an 800-hectare site, will receive multi-component gas from the Yakutia and Irkutsk gas production centres, which are being developed by Gazprom within the Eastern Gas Program. The processed gas will be delivered to China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. Amur will have a production capacity of 42 billion cubic meters (Bcm) of gas per year. It will also boast the world's largest helium production facility. The plant comprises six production lines, with the first two lines slated for commissioning in 2021. The remaining lines will be consecutively put in operation before the end of 2024. The Amur plant is expected to be fully commissioned by 2025. In addition to sales of gas and helium, the plant will produce ethane, propane, butane and pentane-hexane fraction.

At full capacity, helium production will be up to 60 million cubic meters per year, ethane production around 2.5 million tons per year, propane production of 1 million tons per year, butane production of around 500,000 tons per year and pentane-hexane fraction production of roughly 200,000 tons per year.

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