Meet Dmitry Taran, Head of Operational Procurement at JSC NIPIGAZ, the leading Russian center for design, supply, logistics and construction management. NIPIGAZ acts as the general contractor for the construction of the Amur Gas Processing Plant, the customer of which is Gazprom PJSC.
Dmitry is a student of the EMBA program in Russian of the Faculty of International MBA Programs Kingston/RANEPA, finalist of the "Leaders of Russia" competition-2019. The training program coincided with the most crucial moments of the construction and launch of this unique facility. We asked Dmitry to share his impressions and experience gained from participating in this landmark project. That's what Dmitry told us about.
The Amur gas processing plant was built on the route of the main gas pipeline "Power of Siberia". The project has a large-scale geography: the Power of Siberia gas pipeline supplies the plant with multicomponent gas from Yakutia, and in the future the plant will also receive gas from the Irkutsk region.
The basic principle that was originally laid down in the project — deep processing of raw materials and the creation of products with high added value on the territory of the Russian Federation, is a new step towards the development of non-primary exports of our country. Now, instead of natural gas, Russia can export gas processing products with much higher added value: ethane, propane, butane, pentane-hexane fraction and helium — valuable components for the gas and chemical industry, automotive, space, medicine (for example, MRI machines).
The Amur Gas Processing Plant is a strategically important complex, in fact an anchor enterprise, for the development of the entire Far East. In the future, the plant will become part of the gas and chemical cluster, which will be formed after the completion of another large-scale project - the Amur Gas and Chemical Complex (AGHC), implemented by Sibur. The construction of a helium hub near Vladivostok is being completed for the shipment of helium produced at the gas processing plant (an extremely popular and promising product for the Southeast Asian market).
In order to implement the construction of such a large-scale project away from the usual logistics routes (the project is located deep in the mainland) in the conditions of the Far East, where the temperature difference for the year is 70 degrees, a huge complex with access roads, a railway, a pier was built in a record 6 years, rivers were deepened, infrastructure comparable to a small city was built - at peak times, 35,000 people worked at the construction site in an international team at the same time!
The main functionality of the direction headed by Dmitry is the control of the activities of international contractors. A significant number of foreign companies were involved in the project: Linde GmbH, China Gezhouba Group Corporation, RENAISSANCE HEAVY INDUSTRIES, China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp., Yamata, Velesstroy LLC, Sinopec. It was necessary to monitor the compliance of the supplied equipment and materials with the requirements of the contract, to identify inconsistencies/defects, to monitor their prompt elimination at all stages of the project (from the entrance control when entering the warehouse to the completion of commissioning). In addition, an important role is played by risk management regarding the timing of the elimination of inconsistencies, assessment of the impact on the project implementation schedule, mitigation of risks. As Dmitry put it: "I am engaged in solving problems with supplies from all over the world at all stages of the project" - that's it, no more, no less!
The implementation of such a grandiose project required solving non-standard tasks. One of them is the delivery of large-capacity oversized equipment (for example, a Demethanizer column, for a moment, this is a tower 88 meters high, weighing 834 tons, for the installation of which a crane with a height of a 30-storey building is needed). Transportation of such goods by conventional routes is impossible, it was necessary to carry out a unique operation to transfer equipment to barges in the open sea, and for river transportation it was necessary to significantly deepen the river.
The main functionality of the direction headed by Dmitry is the control of the activities of international contractors. A significant number of foreign companies were involved in the project: Linde GmbH, China Gezhouba Group Corporation, RENAISSANCE HEAVY INDUSTRIES, China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp., Yamata, Velesstroy LLC, Sinopec. The Amur Gas Processing Plant is a truly unique, landmark project for our country, a source of pride for the people who participate in it, a source of pride for all of us!
June 23, 2021
Moscow-Far East
Amur Oil Refinery in facts and figures:
The design processing capacity is 42 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year
Helium production — up to 60 million cubic meters. m per year
Ethane production is about 2.4 million tons per year
Propane production — about 1 million tons per year
Butane production is about 500 thousand tons per year
Production of pentane-hexane fraction — about 200 thousand tons per year
Processing lines — 6
The plant area is 800 hectares
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