Earlier this month Gazprom Helium Service put into operation the first small tonnage LNG production unit the Logistics Center for helium containers near Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. The capacity of the unit is 400 kilos per hour.
Natural gas is transported to the Center, which is expected to become the world’s largest hub for servicing thermally-insulated helium containers for supplying liquid helium to the global market, by the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas mainline pipe.
The unit will provide fuel for KAMAZ-5490 Neo trucks modification powered by LNG that was developed specifically for the project. The LNG-powered trucks will carry liquefied helium from Gazprom’s Amur Gas Processing Plant that was put into operation this month via the helium container hub to ports in Primorsky Kray to be exported by sea.
The planned capacity of the helium hub is over 4,500 container operations per annum. The annual production capacity of the Amur Gas Processing Plant is 60 mn cubic meter, which is to make it the world’ leader and is deemed enough to meet the growing demand for helium in the APR.