MOSCOW (MRC) -- RusGazDobycha, a business partner of Russian gas giant Gazprom, plans to start building a chemical plant as part of a massive gas processing cluster on the shores of the Baltic Sea, later this month, RusGazDobycha said on Friday.
The cluster is designed to process annually 45 billion cubic metres of natural gas, produce 13 million tons of LNG, 3.6 million tons of ethane and up to 1.8 million tons of LPG.
A first stage of the cluster is set to come on stream in 2024, while the second is to be launched in 2025.
RusGazDobycha did not disclose financial details for the project that is in part financed by the Russian state, including by the VEB corporation.
Royal Dutch Shell RDSa.L quit the project in 2019 after Gazprom integrated the Baltic LNG project and gas processing plants and added a partner with links to an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As MRC reported earlier, in late March 2021, Gazprom and the industrial gases major Linde have signed an agreement of intent for Ust-Liga gas processing complex cooperation. The document outlines the main terms and conditions of a prospective EPSS contract providing for engineering services, equipment supplies, and maintenance of gas processing and off-site facilities, Gazprom informed in its statement.
Gazprom and RusGazDobycha are implementing the project near the settlement of Ust-Luga, with the RusKhimAlyans as the project operator. It is the anchor project of the major gas processing and chemical cluster that is being established in the region.
We remind that in February 2020, Linde signed a contact for the provision of services for the design and construction of a part of the Amur Gas Chemical Complex (AGHK) of SIBUR. The services will be provided as part of a consortium with NIPIgaz, part of the SIBUR structure.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC