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

JSC RusGazDobycha subsidiary Baltic Chemical Complex LLC (BCC) has let a contract to DL E&C Co. Ltd. to provide design and equipment procurement services 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, about 110 km southwest of St. Petersburg (OGJ Online, June 10, 2020).

Valued at €1.17 billion, the contract award follows DL E&C’s participation since December 2019 in basic project design of BCC’s GCC, the service provider said on Jan. 3.

DL E&C said it expects its scope of work under the contract—which will help manage overall project risks as well as enable completion of optimal detailed design to maximize efficiency and profitability of the complex—will pave the way for a future contract award to participate in the project’s main construction.

Further details regarding DL E&C’s contract award were not revealed.

This latest contract for the GCC portion of the CPECG follows BCC’s earlier awards to McDermott International Ltd. and Lummus Technology LLC for a series of engineering services and technologies at the ethane-cracking complex, that once in operation, will produce 3 million tonnes/year (tpy) of polyethylene, 120,000 tpy of butane, and 50,000 tpy of hexane (OGJ Online, Oct. 18, 2021; July 21, 2021; Nov. 18, 2019).

Alongside BCC’s GCC, the CPECG—which officially began construction in May 2021—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).

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.