RusGazDobycha’s Baltic Chemical lets 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 engineering and procurement (EP) 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 the contract—awarded directly by Heat Transfer Technologies DMCC, a subcontractor of CPECG’s main project contractor China National Chemical Engineering & Construction Corporation Seven Ltd. (CC7)—McDermott will license technology rights, as well as deliver the basic design engineering package, module detailed engineering design, and full procurement of main equipment for a modularized spent caustic treatment solution to enable the GCC’s planned 3-million tonnes/year (tpy) polyethylene production, the service provider said on July 21.

McDermott, which completed front-end engineering design and ongoing early works for the GCC project, revealed neither the value nor duration of the latest EP contract.

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 proposed $13-billion 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).

According to the latest update on its website, RusGazDobycha 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.