Page 19 - FSUOGM Week 01 2021

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Azerbaijan launches gas flows to Europe

AZERBAIJAN AZERBAIJAN has commenced commercial bcm per year each.
natural gas supplies to Europe via the Trans Adri- “The Southern Gas Corridor will strengthen
Italy is set to receive 8 atic Pipeline (TAP), according to its energy min- the system of global energy security. It has con-
bcm per year of gas, istry. The shipments mean new competition for nected the Caspian region to Europe,” the Azer-
while Bulgaria and Russia's Gazprom, Europe's main supplier with baijani energy ministry said in a statement cited
Greece will each get 1 a one-third market share. by Reuters.
bcm per year. TAP represents the third and final section "The start of gas deliveries to Europe from
of the $40bn Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), Azerbaijan is the culmination of years of work
which stretches 3,500 km from Azerbaijan by many thousands of people from all the coun-
to southern Italy via Georgia, Turkey, Greece tries involved – the workforce, communities,
and Albania as well as the Adriatic Sea. The companies, the government of Azerbaijan and
project received ample EU support, as part of other regional and international governments,
Brussels' effort to diversify away from Russian and SOCAR and our partners," BP's regional
gas. vice president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Tur-
The gas comes from Azerbaijan's giant Shah key, Gary Jones, said. "This is a truly world-class
Deniz field operated by BP. At full capacity ship- project in all respects."
ments via TAP will reach 10bn cubic metres TAP's shareholders are BP (20%), SOCAR
(bcm) per year. Italy has agreed to take 8 bcm, (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagas (16%)
while Greece and Bulgaria are set to receive 1 and Axpo (5%).™

INVESTMENT

Sibur closes $11bn petchem JV

deal with Sinopec

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S leading petrochemicals company in the Amur GCC joint venture, the former com-
Sibur and China's Sinopec have closed a $11bn pany said.
The project, in the deal to set up a joint venture to develop the Amur The main terms and conditions of the poten-
works for years, is Gas Chemical Comple (GCC). The move comes tial joint venture were agreed in 2019 that began
worth $11bn. after the pair received all necessary approvals the process of getting all corporate and regula-
from the regulators of both countries, Sibur tory approvals required to close the deal, which
announced on December 28. has now been completed. Following the deal, the
The long discussed project has been in the parties will gain joint control over Amur GCC.
works for years and follows on from the comple- Set to become the world’s largest basic pol-
tion of Sibur's ZapSibNeftekhim petrochemical ymer production facility, Amur GCC will have
complex in 2020, another major expansion of the a capacity of 2.7mn tonnes per year, including
company’s production capacity that was profiled 2.3mn tpy of polyethylene and 400,000 tpy of
by bne IntelliNews in ““Plastics in the snow” in polypropylene, and will be producing a wide
2018. range of grades.
Sibur and Sinopec signed off on a provisional The construction of Amur GCC will proceed
agreement to build the Amur GCC in June 2019 in sync with the gradual ramp-up of Gazprom’s
at a signing ceremony attended by President Amur Gas Processing Plant to its full capacity, so
of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping that the latter could supply ethane and liquefied
and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the petroleum gas (LPG) to Amur GCC for process-
St Petersburg International Economic Forum ing into high value-added products. The com-
(SPIEF) investment forum. pletion of construction and commissioning is
“The partnership will allow the parties to tap scheduled for 2024. The creation of Amur GCC
into shared expertise and experience to maxim- is part of Sibur’s strategy to move up the value
ise efficiency of new large-scale projects and to chain and produce more valuable hydrocarbon
exchange best practices”, said Dmitry Konov, products from the feedstock supplied by Russia’s
chairman of the management board at Sibur major oil and gas producers.
Holding, at that ceremony. “The Amur GCC project will help attract
Under the terms of the final agreement Sibur international investments in the Russian
and Sinopec will hold 60% and 40% respectively economy while also making a considerable

Week 01 06•January•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P19