The plant’s completion marks a breakthrough in the company’s broader plans to monetise its gas resources in the region, which remain undeveloped because of limited local demand and inadequate infrastructure.
INK announced in a statement on November 9 that the plant had shipped its first batch of propane-butane mix via truck two days earlier to customers in Ust-Kut. In the future, such shipments will flow via a planned 205-km LPG pipeline connecting the town with Yaraktinskoye and the nearby Markovskoye field. INK began building this duct in 2015, although its current construction status is unknown.
Previously, gas produced at Yaraktinskoye was either flared or re-injected into reservoirs to maintain pressure. The company also intends to install a 161,000 tpy LPG terminal in Ust-kut.
According to its website, INK had originally planned to complete the Yaraktinskoye plant and these other facilities in 2016.
Under a second stage of its gas project, INK intends to build another two larger gas plants at Yaraktinskoye and a third at Markovskoye, each with a capacity of 6 mcm per year (2.2 bcm per year). The company will also construct another more advanced gas treatment plant in Ust-Kut, which will separate the natural gas liquids (NGL) from these fields into their various components, including gas condensate, propane, butane and ethane.
INK will also expand gas production at the Yaraktinskoye and Markovskoye to provide these plants with added feedstock.
The company is aiming to wrap up this development stage by 2020, two years later than first anticipated.
By 2022, INK plans to erect a petrochemical complex in Ust Kut adjoining the gas processing plant that will produce up to 500,000 tpy of polyethylene or 1 million tpy under a possible expansion. A 70-MW gas-fired power plant will also be built in the town to provide electricity to these facilities.
INK, founded by Russian entrepreneur Nikolai Buynov in 2000, owns a number of Soviet-era oilfields in Irkutsk and the neighbouring region of Yakutia. The company is forecast to flow 8.5 million tonnes (170,000 bpd) of crude this year, up from 7.8 million tonnes (157,000 bpd) in 2016.
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