A unique construction project is underway in the North of Irkutsk Region. They set up a column at the Yaraktinsk deposit, where they're building gas processing plants.
Ilya Buklov tried to explain what this equipment was and what the special aspects of the process were.
It is more than 60 meters high and it weighs 170 tons. Only the most powerful crane can lift it. It took 1.5 months to assembly this crane. They set up the largest column, the main function of which is the final gas purification stage, at the Yaraktinsk oil and gas condensate field. The column is the most noticeable part of the gas processing plant being constructed. It took 6 months to prepare for this event. The column traveled 620 miles here from the manufacturer in parts. Then, special low bed trucks delivered it to the construction site. For a long time, specialists in the Far North had to wait for warmer weather (at least to -4°F) to begin construction.
Evgeniy Berezin, construction site foreman at the Irkutsk Oil Company Project Department: "We prepared for a long time and carefully looked through the weather forecasts, so nothing could stop us from completing this".
Despite the massive size of the structure, the engineers are doing everything with pinpoint precision. Later, the surveyors will monitor the vertical alignment of the column. This is only some of the equipment necessary for completing the major gas project by the Irkutsk Oil Company in the north of the region. In the first stage, a group of sites appeared in the taiga to prepare natural gas and flare gas. The end product, a mixture of propane and butane, is transported via a 124 miles long pipe from the deposit to Ust-Kut, the closest city. From there, it is transported by railway to the customers. Now, in stage two, the company is enhancing the gas processing capacities on its deposits and building a gas fractionation plant near Ust-Kut.
Nikolay Buynov, Irkutsk Oil Company Chairman of the Board of Directors: "We use the most advanced technologies on this project. They adhere to the strictest environmental demands not only in accordance with Russian law but international law too. The total cost of the gas project is 450 billion rubles ($6.9 billion). That is 2,400 jobs. This will give the northern Irkutsk Region and the whole region a new stimulus in the development of the economy, improving the living conditions of the people. During this project, we basically plan to build a whole residential area in Ust-Kut".
The whole operation of lifting the 20-story-tall column lasted about 8 hours. The construction of several other major sites lies ahead. The third stage will be launching the first plant in Siberia and the Far East and also one of the most modern ones in Russia. It will produce hundreds of thousands of tons of polyethylene, which is in high demand today. Ethane, extracted at the company's deposits, will become the raw material for this product.
Ilya Buklov, Mikhail Baiborodin, Evgeniy Kozyrev, Vesti, Irkutsk Region.
