Gazprom to invest €3.5bn in polymers expansion

ERJ staff report (PRW)

Moscow -- Russian company Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat (GNS) has announced a €3.5bn polymers expansion scheme at its site at Salavat in Russia's internal republic of Bashkortostan.

At the heart of the project is a plan to extend and upgrade the existing ethylene production at the former Salavatnefteorgsintez petrochemicals site. GNS, an offshoot of Russian oil and gas group Gazprom, aims eventually to raise its current ethylene capacity of 300,000 tpa with the installation of a 1.4 million tpa cracker.

GNS's expansion scheme will see on site the initial stages of what will be known as the All-Russian Gas Chemistry Centre. Later, this will also feature an industrial park with production of films, pipe, moulded plastic parts and thermoplastic elastomers (TPE).

The project will result in the production of a number of downstream products including polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, propylene oxide, mono ethylene glycol, benzene and ethyl benzene.

The announcement of the firm's latest scheme follows the formal change of the company's name from Salavatnefteorgsintez to Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat in January this year.

The expansion programme will be carried out in several stages with the plant due to reach its ultimate capacity by 2022, according to GNS managing director Damir Shavaleev. Parent group Gazprom will guarantee its feedstocks.

Phase one of the project will see ethylene capacity rising by 80,000 tpa to 380,000 tpa and high density polyethylene increased by the same amount to 200,000 tpa by 2015, he stated. The second phase will include investments in products including ethylene, propylene, HDPE, PP, ethylene oxide and butadiene, the CEO said.

From PRW (A Crain publication)