Deep processing of hydrocarbons makes it possible to reduce the country's import dependence on a whole range of chemical products. Helium, propane, butane and other valuable chemicals obtained during this process are in steady demand on the market. In particular, the volume of deep refining of oil and gas in Eastern Siberia and the Far East is increasing, new projects are being worked out and implemented. However, as experts noted during the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, the implementation of such projects requires quite large investments.

The question is about financing

Irina GaidaIrina Gaida, expert at the Center for Energy Transfer and ESG Skoltech, independent member of the Board of Directors of PJSC Novatek:

"The demand for large-tonnage, medium-tonnage and low-tonnage chemicals, including those produced from hydrocarbon raw materials, is growing. Moreover, the world's growth points are geographically located relative to Russian Siberia: These are China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Of course, China is also trying to increase its own production capacity, including on the basis of its coal reserves. But there are other regions. The main thing here is the superiority in the quality of technology and the logistics arm of delivery.

Regarding the prospects of Russian gas chemistry, two key points need to be highlighted. The first is the export—oriented capacities of large-tonnage chemicals, which will be competitive to a large extent, being located near ports, since this immediately gives significant advantages in logistics costs. This area certainly needs to be developed.

Do not forget about low- and medium-tonnage chemistry. This is also a very promising area. It received a technological boost in the United States against the background of the active development of shale gas production. Where the average volume of raw materials is less than in traditional deposits, therefore, the task was to make its processing technologies effective. This area is especially relevant for development in the Siberian region. In particular, because we are quite import-dependent on a whole range of chemical products.

Several factors are holding back the development of this area. Traditionally, it was difficult to prioritize deep processing projects in the investment portfolio of companies: capital was expensive, and there were other opportunities, including the export of basic processing. Now this is more relevant against the background of the need to diversify the ways of monetization of natural gas. As well as the export and logistical constraints we face.

In products of this category, the sales market is determined by the position on the cost curve. If we have cheap raw materials, good logistics leverage and competitive technology, there will be a sales market. We will simply displace more expensive manufacturers. Our region has one of the most inexpensive sources of natural gas on the world market. Therefore, the "narrow link" is not in the sales market, but in the fact that for the last 30 years we have largely relied on import licensors in the construction of chemical plants. And although there were technologies of their own during the Soviet Union, now the big question is how to quickly modernize and launch them on an industrial scale. To a greater extent, the issue here rests on the sources of financing. How to structure investments in such localization projects for the advanced development of our own petrochemical industry. Because the construction of a pilot plant is usually a risky project, which is unlikely to be supported by ordinary project financing from the bank."

The growth driver

Artyom Verkhovartem Verkhov, Deputy Head of the Department for the Oil and Gas Complex of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation:

"Most of the fields in Eastern Siberia and the Far East belong to gas condensates and oil and gas condensates with a high gas factor. The gas here is characterized by a high quantitative content of valuable components such as propane, butane, heavy hydrocarbons and helium. The content of these components varies from 8% to 32%. The largest reserves of helium are in Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

Due to such a large number of valuable components in gas, it becomes necessary, simultaneously with the development of fields, to create gas processing and gas chemical facilities for the separation of these valuable components from gas and the production of value-added products. At the same time, as a result of such processing, dry gas appears, which will need to be directed to gasification, including housing and communal services of households. It will require the creation of a gas transportation infrastructure.

Let me remind you, for example, the Amur GPP is being built in the Amur region, which by 2025 will reach full processing capacity of 42 billion cubic meters of gas and annually produce up to 2.5 million cubic meters of ethane, 1.5 million cubic meters of LPG, 200 thousand tons of pentane-hexane fractions and up to 60 million cubic meters of helium.

There are other projects, for example, the Amur Gas Processing Plant, which will produce polyethylene and polypropylene up to 2.7 million tons per year in conjunction with the Amur Gas Processing Plant.

A project for the construction of a gas processing complex in Sayansk and the Kovykta —Sayansk— Irkutsk gas pipeline, which Sayanskkhimplast and Gazprom are currently working on, is in the active stage of development. A gasification program has been signed, which, among other things, provides for the construction of a branch line to the village of Zhigalovo — as the beginning of the construction of a large main gas pipeline. This gas chemical complex will also produce polypropylene, polyethylene and methanol.

Due to the sanctions policy pursued by unfriendly countries and the President's instructions on reorientation of export supplies, completion of gasification, taking into account the TEB 2030, Eastern Siberia will be a driver of growth in domestic gas consumption."

To solve the problem of import substitution

Valery KryukoVvalery Kryukov, Director of the Institute of Economics and Industrial Production Organization of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Center for Resource Economics:

"With the relatively prosperous situation with the base polymer, there are large segments in the Russian petrochemical industry that are in a state close to decline. These are, for example, sub-sectors of the chemical industry, including the production of synthetic fibers, which were very developed in Soviet times. Our share in global production is only 0.5%, and in some segments even less. The consumption of engineering plastics, resins, and composites in Russia has been at a stable level in recent years — 40-42 thousand tons, of which only 2-3 thousand tons we produce ourselves.

We are talking about exports, about large capacities, but we import 80% of our products ourselves.

The processing of hydrocarbon raw materials solves the problem of import substitution, the production of our own resins and plastics, which we need.

For example, Tatneft has implemented a unique TANECO (Tatarstan Oil Refining Complex) project for the production of engineering plastics associated with deep processing lines. Its products were used in the construction of the Crimean Bridge, in all engineering communications of which fiberglass was used.

How to implement these projects and make them profitable? I see the solution in the implementation and formation of an approach to the implementation of these projects based on the principles of a full project cycle. That is, not only recycling, but also science, equipment manufacturing, plastics production and their subsequent disposal — the entire line must be synchronized. In this case, the fuel and energy balance should be considered not as a management tool, but as a regulatory tool and a search for mutually acceptable solutions."