Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter Gazprom and Germany’s Wintershall Dea have started ethane-rich gas production from both blocks of a West Siberian project, the Russian gas giant said Wednesday. Along with other fields in the Nadym-Pur-Taz area of West Siberia, the project is expected to send ethane-rich gas to the 45 Bcm/yr Ust-Luga gas processing and LNG plant that Gazprom and its partner RusGazDobycha plan to launch in 2024. The plant will produce 13 million tons/yr from two LNG trains with nearby access to Europe via the Gulf of Finland. Gazprom and Wintershall started production from Block 4A of the Achimov formations at the giant Urengoi field in January and have now added the other block, 5A. Both blocks will now undergo equipment tests as part of commissioning work, but already send the gas into Gazprom’s gas pipeline grid. The blocks are expected to reach their combined production plateau of more than 14 Bcm/yr of natural gas and 5 million tons of gas condensate by 2027, Gazprom said. The condensate-rich Achimov formations are located at depths of around 4,000 meters, compared with 1,100-1,700 meters for the easier-to-develop Cenomanian strata from which Gazprom currently produces most of its gas. Rich gas from the Achimov and Valanginian formations in Nadym-Pur-Taz is the resource base for Gazprom’s Ust-Luga project. At a later stage, it plans to add rich gas from the Tambei group of fields in the Arctic as feedstock for Ust-Luga, if compatriot Novatek doesn’t succeed in buying the lucrative fields from Gazprom for its own LNG expansion ambitions in the Arctic (LNGI Apr.19'21).
