SIBUR’s Amur GCC to showcase company’s environmental credentials: executive

Sustainability will remain a top priority for Russian petrochemical producer Sibur in 2021and its joint-venture Amur Gas Chemical Complex is expected to be at the forefront of the company's environmental, social and governance efforts, Sibur International CEO Andrey Frolov said Feb 12

The Amur GCC will have a 2.7 million mt/year polymer capacity upon completion, expected in mid-2024, and Sibur hopes that the site will establish new global environmental benchmarks, Frolov told S&P Global Platts in an interview. Sibur holds a 60% stake in Amur GCC, China's Sinopec holding the remaining 40%.

Amur GCC's construction is not expected to cost more than $10 billion, Frolov said.

"Gaining the experience with ZapSib," he said, referring to Sibur's ZapSibNeftekhim petrochems complex, "which is a huge production site, we've understood and gained an experience of working with contractors, with suppliers and even with internal work flow of project management, which will allow us to reduce some direct costs related to the construction of the site itself."

Amur GCC is going to adhere to the Sibur's strategy of equipping the company with the latest technology in line with current sustainability trends, Frolov said.

"It should be not only be competitive from the cost perspective of the production of polymers, but also from a perspective of competitiveness in ESG aspects."

Sibur is already engaged in various efforts aimed at improving sustainability.

"Take the Bashkortostan site," Frolov said. "We produce PET and we have an investment project to acquire used material (so-called PET flex) and produce secondary products to market alongside primary materials. So pushing society in Russia to set up the selective collection of garbage and push it to save the environment.

"Together with [US sporting goods company] Wilson we are producing the eco-ball; some of the layers of which are from secondary materials from bottles collected from basketball matches in the Russian league," he said. "These are small examples but we have plenty of them.”                         

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