Gazprom Launches Processing Facilities & Starts Tests of Natural Gas-Powered Locomotive

A number of ceremonies marking important industrial events took place today with the participation of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, via a conference call at St. Petersburg International Gas Forum 2024.

A new condensate de-ethanization unit (UDK-1) was put into operation at the Urengoy Condensate Treatment Plant.

UDK-1 is an important facility within Gazprom's technological complex for the processing of the reserves of the Nadym-Pur-Taz region, which has traditionally been a hydrocarbon production region for the Gazprom Group. To further increase the efficiency of field development in this territory, the Company develops its facilities that serve to process gas condensate, a byproduct of natural gas production and a valuable raw material for the oil refining and petrochemical industries.

The function of the new unit is to receive unstable gas condensate. It includes four production trains and can process 8 million tons of feedstock a year. The facility has been built to replace the previous condensate de-ethanization unit which had a smaller production capacity. The engineering solutions applied in the new unit make it possible to process, in any proportions, gas condensate of different compositions from the Valanginian and deep-lying Achimov deposits.

With the launch of UDK-1, the output of the Urengoy Condensate Treatment Plant has been increased to 19.5 million tons of feedstock per year.

All equipment for UDK-1 was manufactured by Russian enterprises. Inter alia, it is equipped with an advanced distributed control and emergency protection system of Russian make for hydrocarbon processing units. UDK-1 is the first place ever in Russia where the system has been implemented.

Alexey Miller was presented with a report about the progress of the pilot operation of the new domestic gas turbine engine AL-41ST-25.

AL-41ST-25 is a new-generation engine created by United Engine Corporation (UEC, part of the Rostec State Corporation) at the request of Gazprom. The pilot operation of the engine prototype in a gas compressor unit commenced at the Arskaya compressor station (Republic of Tatarstan) at the end of September.

At present, the gas compressor unit is working in the “trunkline” mode: the compressed gas is fed from the compressor station into the gas trunkline. The engine works reliably within the unit and maintains the specified operational parameters.

For everyone interested, the prototype of the AL-41ST-25 engine is on display at SPIGF 2024.

Pilot tests of the TEM18-LNG shunter powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) were started.

Taking part in the event were Alexey Miller and Alexey Kakhidze, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gazprom LNG Technologies.

TEM18-LNG was converted from a diesel locomotive and is designed for shunting works on railway tracks. As part of the conversion to NGV fuel, the locomotive was equipped with four gas-fueled reciprocating engines and a cryogenic fuel tank with a volume of 3 tons for storing LNG at a temperature of minus 162 degrees Celsius.

The conversion works were performed on the locomotive by Research and Design & Technological Institute of Rolling Stock (VNIKTI) at the request of Gazprom LNG Technologies.

As regards TEM18-LNG, this is already the second time when a locomotive powered by liquefied natural gas was created. Russia's first LNG-powered shunter TEMG-1 had been manufactured at the request of Gazpromtrans.