Korean firm bags $1.3bn contract at Russian chemicals project

South Korea's DL E&C has won a contract worth 1.6 trillion won ($1.3bn) for design and equipment procurement at what is set to be the world's largest polymer plant in northwest Russia.

Russian private firm Rusgazdobycha is developing the complex in the Baltic port of Ust-Luga. It will be supplied with natural gas liquids from a major gas processing and LNG plant that Gazprom is developing with Rusgazdobycha in the area, and will produce 3mn metric tons of polyethylene, 120,000 mt of butane and 50,000 mt of hexane annually.

DL E&C said it won the contract after "defeating advanced European competitors" in a competition, and that the award "proves its technological prowess." It has been involved in the process of designing the facility since December 2019, it said. The company said it looked forward to securing additional contracts in Russia in the future.

"This project is meaningful in that we won a big order in Russia, a market regarded as a high barrier to entry for Korean construction companies," the head of DL E&C's plant business division, Yoo Jae-ho, commented. "We would strengthen our digital innovation and BIM-based design ability to solidify our position in the expanding Russian market."