November 10, 2011, Noyabrsk (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region). SIBUR announces that today it has officially commissioned a new loading rack for transporting natural gas liquids (NGL), a by-product of processing associated petroleum gas (APG), which is used as feedstock in the petrochemical industry.

SIBUR has invested a total of 8.6 billion rubles in this project which will create a new transportation system with a capacity of up to 1.5 million tonnes of NGL per year. This system includes a 10 thousand cubic metre freight fleet, a pipeline system, a railway trestle with a bilateral loading stand, as well as other offsite facilities. The system for receiving, storing and loading NGL is fully automated.

Launching the terminal facility in Noyabrsk will increase the capacity for transporting NGL from SIBUR’s gas fractionation facilities in the Urals Federal District of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region by up to 20%, thereby complementing existing rail and NGL pipeline transportation channels.

The commissioning of the loading rack is just one stage in a large-scale comprehensive programme which aims to create a single, unified network of SIBUR’s APG processing and transportation facilities in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region. More than 20 billion rubles have been invested in this programme to date. The programme’s key components include:

• Aligning SIBUR’s plans for the commissioning of gas processing facilities with forecasts for feedstock production by oil companies as a part long-term partnership on APG processing;
• Building and modernising new gas processing facilities in the region, including increasing the recovery factor of the liquid desired cut up to 98-99% and improving the energy efficiency and environmental friendliness of the company’s operations;
• Creating an integrated infrastructure for transporting APG products, including pipelines and the loading rack near Noyabrsk.

The first stage of the programme was completed in 2009 and involved the reconstruction of the Vyngapurovsky Gas Processing Plant (GPP), previously a compressor station, and the construction of a 90 km pipeline, linking the Vyngapurovsky GPP with the Urengoy-Surgut condensate pipeline, thus enabling the full-scale extraction and transportation of NGL.

In 2010, a project to modernise the Gubkinsky GPP was completed which, for the first time in Russia, enabled the increase of the recovery factor of the liquid desired cut up to 99%.

In 2011, the company constructed a 127 km pipeline from the Gubkinsky Gas Treatment Plant to the new Muravlenkovsky GPP and the loading rack near Noyabrsk. This will ultimately increase the reliability of the supply of raw materials produced in the region at SIBUR’s petrochemical plants and by other companies.

The final stage of the programme involves completing the construction of the Vyngapurovsky GPP, which will increase the APG receiving capacity to 2.4 billion cubic metres per year and bring the recovery factor of the liquid desired cut up to 99%. To date, the company has completed the engineering design of these facilities and the pile-concrete work and is currently delivering and installing metallic structures and equipment. The completion of construction and commissioning of the Vyngapurovsky GPP is scheduled for summer 2012.

SIBUR’s programme in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region is one of the key elements in developing the West Siberian petrochemical cluster, outlined as part of the Government’s plan for developing Russia’s gas and petrochemical industry by 2030.