Linde-Renaissance JV awarded Ust-Luga LNG contract
A joint venture between Germany's Linde and Turkey's Renaissance Heavy Industries has secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract from Gazprom and its partner Rusgazdobycha for the 13mn metric tons/year gas liquefaction plant under development at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga.
A technology patented in Russia will be used for producing LNG, Gazprom said, noting that itself and Linde were the patent holders.
The liquefaction plant is part of a larger gas processing complex Gazprom and Rusgazdobycha are developing at Ust-Luga, which at full capacity will handle up to 45bn m3/year of gas. In addition to LNG, it will also produce 19bn m3 of piped gas annually for transport to Europe and 3.6mn mt of ethane and 2.2mn mt of LPG.
Gazprom announced in October 2019 it would form a joint venture with Linde to design facilities for the processing and liquefaction of gas. It then hired the German company to build the project's gas processing facilities in March this year, after scrapping a contract with Nipigaz.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the complex was held in May. Gazprom expects to launch the first LNG train in 2023, followed by the second in 2024.