Sibur has begun the construction of the Amur Gas Chemical Complex project, a facility set to become one of the world’s largest and most advanced basic polymer producers, the company said.
The Amur GCC project envisages construction of a basic polymer production facility with a total capacity of 2.7 million metric tons per year of which 2.3 million metric tons per year will be polyethylene and 400,000 metric tons per year polypropylene, the company said.
Located in the Svobodny district of Amur region, the facility will feature the world’s largest cracking unit for the first-stage processing of incoming feedstock.
Amur GCC will be launched in synch with the gradual ramp-up of Gazprom’s Amur Gas Processing Plant to its full capacity, so that the latter could supply ethane and LPG to Amur GCC for processing into high value-added products.
The completion of construction and commissioning is scheduled for 2024–2025. Once in operation, Amur GCC will give a major boost to the growth of non-commodity exports, as Amur GCC’s polymer production capacity is 1.35 times higher than total polymer exports in 2019.
China’s Sinopec, the world’s largest petrochemical company, is expected to become SIBUR’s partner under this project.
“As a national leader of the oil and gas processing industry, Sinopec boasts an extensive distribution network in China for oil and gas products of varying processing levels. This country remains the key driver behind global polymer consumption growth and is a target market for Amur GCC,” the company said.