Page 16 - FSUOGM Week 23

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Gazprom signs key deals for

$13bn Baltic gas hub

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S national gas supplier Gazprom has Gazprom also said it had struck a 20-year deal
announced signing key deals to underpin the to supply the ethane to a separate petrochemical
The $13bn project construction of a gas processing and LNG pro- plant RusGazDobycha is developing at the same
is among a number duction complex on the Baltic Sea. Baltic port of Ust-Luga. It added that an engi-
of major investments The $13bn project, unveiled last year, is neering, procurement and construction (EPC)
planned by Gazprom. among a number of major investments Gazprom contract had been awarded to Nipigaz, a subsid-
is advancing, despite promises of leaner spend- iary of Russia’s Sibur group, for processing facili-
ing and a sharp drop in European gas revenues ties. But EPC contractors are yet to be chosen for
triggered by the coronavirus (COVID-19) cri- the liquefaction facilities.
sis. Gazprom has formed a 50:50 joint venture Gazprom aims to start up the complex in
called RusKhimAlyans with RusGazDobycha, either 2023 or 2024.
a company affiliated with Kremlin ally Arkady Despite poor market conditions, Gazprom
Rotenburg, to implement the plan. has expressed interest in advancing a raft of
In a statement on June 8, Gazprom said it had costly new projects. It recently launched feasi-
entered into 20-year commercial contracts with bility studies for building a second $20bn gas
RusKhimAlyans for the supply of 45bn cubic pipeline to China, and has also looked again at
metres per year to the complex. This gas will the long-delayed development of the offshore
come from Gazprom fields, it said. Shtokman field in the Arctic. Such schemes are
From these supplies, the complex will pro- unfeasible at current prices and could take more
duce 18 bcm per year of treated gas, which will than a decade to realise.
be exported through the Nord Stream pipelines, Announcements about these projects come
along with 13mn tonnes per year of LNG for after recent release of an investigation by Russian
export via tanker. It will also turn out 3.6mn tpy news agency Lenta.ru that frames Gazprom’s
of ethane and 2.2mn tpy of liquefied petroleum landmark $55bn Power of Siberia pipeline pro-
gas (LPG). ject as a costly misadventure. ™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 10•June•2020