OREANDA-NEWS. September 04, 2015. Led by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, a meeting dedicated to implementation of the corporate investment projects to supply gas to China through the eastern route was held today in Blagoveshchensk.

It was attended by Valery Golubev and Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairmen of the Company’s Management Committee, heads of Gazprom’s core departments and affiliates.

Gazprom was noted to keep arranging a large gas production cluster around the Chayandinskoye field, constructing the Power of Siberia gas pipeline and a heavy-duty gas treatment plant in the Amur Region. These projects will make it possible to supply gas to China under the world’s most expensive contract, develop gas infrastructure and boost economic growth in the eastern parts of Russia.

The Chayandinskoye field still sees the construction of the primary facilities for pilot development of the local oil rim. Particularly, two of eleven production wells are already drilled. Deforesting is completed and followed by soil excavation for the construction of the oil treatment plant and the auxiliary power unit.

The Chayanda gas production facilities have nearly passed the project documentation stage and now face drawing the as-built documents. Pre-construction works for a comprehensive gas treatment unit and a residential area are in progress.

Transmission facilities for the field are under construction as well. Installation of concrete blocks for the mooring wall of the river-side cargo berth in Peleduy settlement is over. Dredging and assembling works for buildings are underway. Besides, the construction activities cover access roads to the oil well cluster and the oil treatment plant as well as river bridges, including the main bridge over the Nyuya River.

The Power of Siberia gas pipeline, carrying gas from the Yakutia and later on from the Irkutsk gas production centers, is still under construction. Painstaking works are seen at a 207-kilometer section from the Chayandinskoye field to the town of Lensk. 27 kilometers of the line pipe section are so far welded and buried.

Moreover, a 587-kilometer section of the gas pipeline routing from Lensk to the Maxim Perfiliev compressor station is subjected to deforesting. The Lensk itself sees the basement laying for the Line Pipe Operation Center yard and the residential area construction. Project documents for the Power of Siberia trans-border section near Blagoveshchensk are under development: the submerged crossing over the Amur River is supposed to be laid through micro-tunneling.

The construction of production and transmission facilities has engaged by now nearly 2,600 contractor employees and 1,280 units of the specialist and ancillary machines. Temporary storage yards took 369,000 tons (about 481 kilometers) of large pipes during the last two years to procure the Power of Siberia construction.

The pipe line is going to deliver gas to the Amur Gas Processing Plant of 49 billion cubic meters annual capacity. The plant site is currently under preparation near the town of Svobodny, and the appropriate process flow diagram is now under consideration.

“The project proceeds according to schedule. All essentials are available, everybody shows proper and well-coordinated actions. The prime facilities for the eastern route of gas supplies to China are to be completed on schedule in 2018,” – said Alexey Miller.

Certain instructions regarding the further development of the Yakutia gas production center and the construction of gas transmission and treatment facilities summarized the meeting.

Background

The eastern route stipulates gas supplies to China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline.

On May 21, 2014 Gazprom and CNPC signed the Purchase and Sale Agreement for the Russian gas supply via the eastern route. The 30-year contract provides for Russian gas supplies to China in the amount of 38 billion cubic meters a year. Gas supplies under the contract will commence between May 2019 and May 2021.

The Chayandinskoye oil, gas and condensate field is unique in terms of reserves (C1+C2): some 1.45 trillion cubic meters of gas and some 93 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons (recoverable). At full capacity the field will annually produce up to 25 billion cubic meters of gas and no less than 1.5 million tons of oil.

The Power of Siberia gas transmission system will deliver natural gas from the Irkutsk and Yakutia gas production centers to the Russian Far East and China. The pipeline will cross three Russian constituent entities – the Irkutsk Region, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Amur Region – and in future may be connected to the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok GTS

Valuable components like helium and ethane will be stripped from the Yakutia and Irkutsk gas at the Amur Gas Processing Plant.