BP PLC's (BP) Russian joint venture TNK-BP Ltd. plans to construct a new gas processing facility, which will enable the company to utilize almost 100% of its associated gas by 2012, the company said Wednesday.
Capacity at the new plant, which will be build in Russia's Orenburg region - one of TNK-BP's key production areas - will total 450 million cubic meters of gas a year, the company said.
The new plant will allow TNK-BP to bring the overall level of flared associated gas utilization up to almost 100% by 2012, a company spokeswoman said. TNK-BP is already in the process of revamping gas pipelines and gas compression stations as well as expanding TNK-BP's existing Zaikino gas processing plant in the Orenburg region.
The company said the new plant will cost "several hundred million dollars."
TNK-BP, owned on a 50-50 basis by BP and a group of Russian businessmen, is Russia's third biggest oil producer with a daily output of around 1.43 million barrels of crude a day.