Page 19 - FSUOGM Week 22

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
Lockdown lifted at Gazprom field delivering gas to China
RUSSIA
Chayandinskoye is the main source field for the Power of Siberia gas pipeline.
A lockdown imposed at Gazprom’s Chayan- dinskoye gas field in Eastern Siberia to contain a coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has been lifted, local authorities said on June 1.
The field has been pumping gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline since December, but Gazprom insists that supplies have not been affected by the quarantine.
The lockdown was first put in place in mid- April, days after the first COVID-19 confirmed at the site. The virus quickly spread, with an offi- cial at Russia’s health ministry stating on May 3 than over 3,000 of the 10,000 workers stationed at the field in Yakutia had tested positive.
A key contractor at the field, Stroytransneft- egaz, later said it had halted all work and would not resume operations until the lockdown had been lifted.
Announcing the quarantine’s end, Yakutia’s government said this week that over 8,000 work- ers had been removed from the field and of these,
140 people had been taken to medical facilities. Some 2,500 shift workers remain at the site, and gas production continues as usual, the govern- ment said.
Russia is currently working to bring Chayan- dinskoye to its planned output plateau of 25bn cubic metres per year – a target it expects to reach in 2022-2023. However, a recent investigation by Russian news agency Lenta.ru claims Gazprom has overestimated the field’s production capacity.
Gazprom is also developing a second large field in Eastern Siberia, Kovyktinskoye, which the company projects will provide a further 25 bcm per year for delivery to China. According to Lenta.ru, though, this is goal is unlikely to be reached either.
Gazprom may therefore struggle to honour its 2014 gas supply contract with China’s CNPC, which calls for the delivery of up to 38 bcm per year of gas over a 30-year period, Lenta.ru reported. ™
Rosneft seeks tender for hydrocracker unit
RUSSIA
Rosneft has pushed back the launch
of a number of hydrocrackers.
ROSNEFT’S Bashkortostan-based subsidiary Bashneft has opened a new tender for construc- tion and installation work at a damaged hydroc- racker at its Ufaneftekhim refinery. The unit was taken offline in 2016 following a fire.
The company aims to select a contractor by the end of August, offering a contract worth RUB1.1bn ($16mn). The chosen contractor will be required to start work within five years of a contract being signed and complete all activities by August 2021.
The hydrocracker comprises cold and hot pumping stations, heat exchanger blocks, reactors, furnaces, a compressor building, a transformer substation and a chimney. The contractor will need to dismantle previously damaged equipment, and provide a two-year warranty on the work it performs.
A gas explosion occurred at the Ufaneft- ekhim hydrocracker in July 2016, killing six peo- ple and hospitalising two more. The installation was subsequently decommissioned.
Bashneft sought a contractor for the pro- ject in 2018, shortlisting firms Vostokneft- ezavodmontazh and Promfinstroy. But it did not pick either company. It did, however, hire Italy’s Walter Tosto last year to replace the unit’s two reactors at a cost of RUB706mn ($10.7mn).
Ufaneftekhim, originally constructed in the 1950s, can process up to 9.5mn tonnes per year (190,000 barrels per day) of crude. Along with two other plants in Bashkortostan, it came under the control of Rosneft in late 2016 when the latter acquired Bashneft.
NewsBase reported in March 2019 that Ros- neft had delayed the launch of major hydroc- racking projects at five of its oil refineries. The target for commissioning the Ufaneftekhim unit was 2020, but as a contractor has not yet been selected, this looks unlikely to be met.
Rosneft also pushed back start dates for hydrocrackers at its refineries in Achinsk, Kom- somolsk, Novokuibyshevsk and Tuapse. ™
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