In the News:
Russia’s ethane production is expected to increase more than ten-fold by 2025
Before 2020, Russia’s natural gas processing plant ethane production was approximately 25,000 barrels per day (b/d). If all planned natural gas projects come online, Russia could produce nearly 300,000 b/d of ethane from more than 70 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of projected natural gas production by 2025. This estimate compares with 2019 U.S. natural gas plant ethane production of 1.8 million b/d out of 92.0 Bcf/d of dry gas production.....MUCH MORE (not just Russian ethane)
Ethane is co-produced with natural gas in Russia, and limited domestic demand for ethane has resulted in natural gas processors leaving the ethane in the pipeline gas stream—a process referred to as ethane rejection. Ethane production in Russia began in 1992 with natural gas processing plants in Orenburg—located in southwest Russia near the border with Kazakhstan—supplying about 25,000 b/d of ethane feedstock to the Kazanorgsintez petrochemical plant in Kazan via a 500-mile ethane pipeline.
Responding to growing natural gas production from the Yamal-Nenets region in Western Siberia, Sibur—Russia’s largest independent midstream operator—recently completed a hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL) pipeline to its natural gas processing and fractionation center at Tobolsk, located approximately 600 miles south of the natural gas-producing region. Sibur completed construction on its new 1.5 million metric tons per year (mt/y) ethylene cracker in the first quarter of 2020. When fully operational, the plant will consume ethane as 20% of its feedstock, doubling Russia’s ethane market to about 50,000 b/d....
Back in the USSA:
U.S. LNG exports increase week over week. Seven LNG vessels (three from Cameron and two each from Sabine Pass and Cove Point) with a combined LNG-carrying capacity of 25 Bcf departed the United States between July 16 and July 22, 2020, according to shipping data provided by Marine Traffic.That compares to last week's:
U.S. LNG exports decrease week over week. Four liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels (two from Sabine Pass and one each from Cove Point and Cameron) with a combined LNG-carrying capacity of 15 Bcf departed the United States between July 9 and July 15, 2020, according to shipping data provided by Marine Traffic. This level is the lowest reported U.S. LNG export volume since December 8, 2016, when Sabine Pass LNG was the only U.S. LNG export facility and had two trains in operation....So coming off a very low base.
