In April 1991, CB&I was awarded a contract to provide the conceptual design for a gas separation plant at Gazprom's new Novy Urengoy Polyethylene Complex located in Northern Siberia, Russia. The entire complex includes a high-density polyethylene plant, ethane cracker, gas separation plant and offsite facilities. We provided preliminary engineering for the gas separation portion of the project to provide capital cost estimates and a definition for a lump-sum contract award.

We adopted a modular design concept, taking into account the harsh weather conditions encountered in Northern Siberia. The modules were designed to be 12 meters in height, 12 meters in width and up to 24 meters in length, and they were designed to weigh up to 500 tons. We proposed that the modules be transported by sea, river and land to the remote location.

The major process units in the gas separation design included gas receiving, dehydration, refrigeration and fractionation. The plant was designed to recover 84% ethane from rich pipeline gas. The project, which was completed in November 1992, used a total of 17,000 work-hours.