RusGazDobycha lets contract for Ust-Luga chemical complex

JSC RusGazDobycha subsidiary Baltic Chemical Complex LLC (BCC) has let a contract to Axens Group of France to provide licensing of its proprietary alpha-olefins production technology for BCC’s $13-billion ethane cracking project under construction on the Gulf of Finland near Ust-Luga, in Russia’s Leningrad region (OGJ Online, June 10, 2020; Nov. 18, 2019; Apr. 2, 2019).

As part of the agreement, Axens will license its AlphaButol technology for production of high-purity 1-butene by ethylene dimerization as well as its AlphaHexol technology for production of high-purity 1-hexene through ethylene trimerization, the service provider said.

Alongside licensing of its technologies, Axens' scope of work under the agreement also includes delivery of the process book, catalysts, adsorbents, proprietary equipment, training, and technical support.

The project includes two 60,000-tonnes/year for production of 1-butene and one 50,000-tpy unit for production of 1-hexene, Axens said. The complex will use 1-butene and 1-hexene as comonomers for production of various types of polyethylene (PE), including linear low-density PE (LLDPE) and high-density PE (HDPE).

Axens did not reveal a value of the contract or a timeline for its work on the project.

First announced in 2019 and slated to become the largest ethylene integration project in the world once completed, the natural gas processing chemical plant will include two ethylene cracking sites—each with a capacity of 1.4 million tpy—six polyethylene trains with a combined processing capacity of 480,000 tpy, and two linear alpha olefin plants with a combined capacity of 137,000 tpy.

Construction work on the integrated complex—which will process ethane-containing gas from PJSC Gazprom’s production fields—currently is proceeding according to schedule, said Konstantin Makhov, BCC’s general director, on Sept. 15.

The complex is scheduled to be completed in two phases, with Phase 1 commissioning planned for fourth-quarter 2023 and Phase 2 startup to follow in fourth-quarter 2024, according to RusGazDobycha.