Ethane supply discussions resume
Gazprom and SIBUR have resumed discussions about increasing ethane supplies from the Orenburg Helium Plant to Kazanorgsintez in Russia. SIBUR CEO Mikhail Karisalov said coordination involved Gazprom and the Orenburg and Tatarstan governments.
Kazanorgsintez is the sole consumer of Orenburg’s ethane. Liquid ethane travels through the Orenburg–Kazan pipeline to the Appakovsky regasification station in Tatarstan’s Almetyevsk district, then through the Minnibayevo–Kazan pipeline. Tatneft’s Minnibayevo Gas Processing Plant supplies ethane.
Orenburg’s annual production figures
The Orenburg plant produced 364,000 tonnes of ethane in 2025, down 9% from 400,000 tonnes in 2024. Gazprom Pererabotka supplied the figures cited by Kommersant on 20 January 2026 in the January production update. The plant accounted for approximately 80% of Russian ethane production, according to company data.
The 2025 decline amounts to 36,000 tonnes, calculated by subtracting 364,000 from 400,000. The earlier two years had identical annual output. The published series covers production at Orenburg:
- 2022–2023: 379,000 tonnes annually.
- 2024: 400,000 tonnes.
- 2025: 364,000 tonnes.
Feedstock demand at Kazanorgsintez
Kazanorgsintez required 780,000 tonnes of ethane annually, while deliveries in 2022 totalled 580,000 tonnes, Tatarstan head Rustam Minnikhanov said in April 2023. Those deliveries concern supplies to the chemical plant; Orenburg’s figures measure production at one supplier.
Kazanorgsintez completed a high-density polyethylene line upgrade in December 2024. Reactor B’s design capacity increased from 100,000 to 220,000 tonnes annually, with investment exceeding RUB8 billion. Across its three HDPE lines, design capacity reached 660,000 tonnes a year, a 20% increase. SIBUR said reaching those design figures would depend on adapting product grades to demand and increasing raw-material supplies.
A separate ethylene supply route
Reactor B was expected to process about 20% of the ethylene from Nizhnekamskneftekhim’s EP-600 complex, whose design capacity is 600,000 tonnes annually. SIBUR’s December 2024 plans envisaged increasing ethylene transfers from Nizhnekamsk to Kazan from 200,000 to 500,000 tonnes per year through pipeline construction. This interplant route carries ethylene, while the Orenburg proposal concerns ethane supplied for processing at Kazanorgsintez.
Reconstruction during planned maintenance preserved the main production operation. Soyuzkhimpromproekt institute served as designer, and contractors included Servicetechnomontazh. The dated upgrade announcement records the reconstruction.
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