OREANDA-NEWS. March 26, 2012. As part of the largest Joint Implementation (JI) project in Russia, SIBUR has sold its first batch of Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) comprising 1.2 million tonnes of СО2. The ERUs were acquired by the investment bank JP Morgan, with Sberbank Russia, the Russian carbon unit operator, coordinating the process.

The total volume of the project is 8 million tonnes of СО2, a capacity achieved thanks to the construction of the second stage of SIBUR’s Yuzhno-Baliksky Gas Processing Plant in the Khanty-Mansijsk Autonomous District. As a result of this project, which was completed in 2009, the plant’s capacity for APG processing increased from 1.5 billion m3 to 3 billion m3 per year.

SIBUR has invested more than 8 billion roubles (over 250 million US dollars) in the expansion of Yuzhno-Baliksky GPP, and, as a result, extraction of the desired cut at the plant has increased to 95% overall. The new complex consists of a booster compression station, drying and low-temperature condensation sections, a propane refrigerating unit, and other auxiliary facilities. The complex is a self-contained GPP, the first facility on such a scale constructed in Russia in the last decade.

The expansion of Yuzhno-Baliksky GPP was made possible due to SIBUR’s partnership with the oil company Rosneft, which supplies associated petroleum gas (APG) to Yuzhno-Baliksky GPP. As a result of their collaboration SIBUR and Rosneft, will take an equal share of earnings from ERUs.

The funds which SIBUR will receive will be invested in the construction of the Vyngapurovsky GPP and the building of infrastructure for transporting APG derivatives - NGLs. The construction works at Vyngapurovsky GPP are expected to be completed in summer this year. After that the capacity of APG supplied from Gazprom Neft JSC’s deposits in the Khanty-Mansijsk Autonomous District to Vyngapurovsky GPP will increase to 2.4 billion m3 per year.

Several projects implemented by SIBUR in the field of APG processing and increasing energy efficiency are either in the project design phase, awaiting approval or are in the process of signing ERU sales contracts.