Amur GCC begins polypropylene foundation work

The extrusion building

Amur Gas Chemical Complex reported the start of foundation work for its polypropylene installation on 21 November 2024. Specialists poured the first 235 cubic metres for the future extrusion building. Chief construction expert Alexander Chernyshev described two parallel production lines, twin-screw extruders with pumps and two rooftop product-storage silos, each holding 880 cubic metres.

Building height with rooftop equipment: 72 metres.
Planned foundation concrete: 4,700 cubic metres.
Granule-screen design rate: 32 tonnes per hour.

Earlier construction progress

The foundation milestone followed earlier work on the wider project. On 24 January 2024, then chief executive Alexei Vereshchagin said progress was expected to exceed 40% by month-end. Design, material and equipment deliveries, and construction were proceeding together. About 14,000 people were working on site; the company expected 20,000 in the second half and a peak of 25,000 around year-end or the following year. Vereshchagin had reported finding new supply chains and agreeing a revised start-up schedule and budget after European partners refused equipment deliveries. Design capacity was 2.3 million tonnes of polyethylene and 400,000 tonnes of polypropylene annually.

Planned product markets

On 6 September 2024, chief executive Sergei Sergeyev said Sinopec would market polyethylene from the complex under a long-term arrangement. The project was owned 60% by SIBUR and 40% by Sinopec. He identified Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia as promising export markets and said other South Asian destinations, including India, were being studied. Domestic deliveries would depend on Far Eastern processing development and opportunities elsewhere in Russia. The proposed transport split was 20% by truck across the Blagoveshchensk–Heihe bridge and 80% by rail through Primorye to ports.

The neighbouring gas-processing plant

A separate upstream construction programme was progressing in Svobodny. On 29 August 2024, Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller announced that the fourth process train at the Amur Gas Processing Plant had been commissioned. The gas-processing project’s design provided for six trains, each handling seven billion cubic metres of raw gas annually, for total capacity of forty-two billion cubic metres. Its launch was being synchronised with expansion of the Power of Siberia pipeline. Miller described gas processing as supplying products used in further production cycles across many sectors.