RusGazDobycha’s Baltic Chemical lets new contract for Ust-Luga complex

JSC RusGazDobycha subsidiary Baltic Chemical Complex LLC (BCC), through its contractor, has let a contract to McDermott International Ltd. to provide additional works for BCC’s $13-billion ethane-cracking complex, or gas chemical complex (GCC) portion, of the larger PJSC Gazprom-RusGazDobycha combined gas processing, liquefaction, and chemical complex for processing ethane-containing gas (CPECG) under construction at the Gulf of Finland near the seaport of Ust-Luga, Leningrad Oblast, Russia (OGJ Online, June 10, 2020).

As part of a letter of guarantee for the Oct. 18 contract—awarded directly by CPECG’s main project contractor China National Chemical Engineering & Construction Corporation Seven Ltd. (CC7)—McDermott will provide complete project management as well as engineering and procurement services, including field engineering, author supervision, and supply of equipment and materials for the two-train 2.8-million tonnes/year ethane cracker unit featuring ethylene steam-cracking process technology licensed by Lummus Technology LLC, McDermott said.

This latest agreement follows McDermott's delivery of the front-end engineering design and early works phases of the project, the service provider said.

Alongside BCC’s GCC, the CPECG—which officially began construction in May—also includes RusKhimAlyans’—a 50-50 special-purpose venture of Gazprom and RusGazDobycha—integrated natural gas processing and liquefaction complex (GPC of the CPECG), which will have 13-million tpy liquefaction capacity and initially process 45 billion cu m/year (bcmy) of wet natural gas feedstock it receives from Gazprom’s Achimov and Valanginian deposits in the Nadym-Pur-Taz region of the Yamal Peninsula (OGJ Online, May 24, 2021).

The GPC will produce as much as 4 million tpy of ethane, and more than 2.2 million tpy of LPG, with ethane from the complex to feed nearby BCC’s ethane cracking project that—once in operation—will produce more than 3 million tpy of polymers (OGJ Online, Nov. 9, 2020). About 18 bcmy of gas remaining after processing at GPC—including ethane extraction, LPG, and 13 million tpy of LNG—will be exported from the site via Gazprom’s gas transmission lines (OGJ Online, Mar. 29, 2021).

In September, RusKhimAlyans LLC also let a contract to a consortium of Linde PLC’s Linde Engineering and Rönesans Holding’s Renaissance Heavy Industries (RHI) to deliver engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services on the GPC of the CPECG (OGJ Online, Sept. 10, 2021).

RusGazDobycha most recently said it expects to complete first-phase construction of the GCC during fourth-quarter 2023, with second-stage construction to wrap in fourth-quarter 2024.