Linde advances major projects in Russia

London – Linde Group has recently announced several contracts for plant engineering and gas supply projects in Russia for groups including SIBUR, Gazprom and Novolipetsk Steel. Under these unrelated deals, Linde is building two olefin plants for two chemical customers in Western Siberia, and an air separation unit (ASU) for on-site supply of industrial gases to a steel operation in the Moscow region. The company estimated the combined value of the contracts at over Euro530 million.

Group subsidiary Linde-KCA-Dresden GmbH will construct a polypropylene plant with an annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes in Tobolsk, Western Siberia, for the plastics manufacturer Tobolsk-Polymer LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of SIBUR Holding JSC. This will be integrated into SIBUR’s new complex to dehydrogenate propane and manufacture polypropylene in Tobolsk. LKCA has already started engineering work.

The company plans to deliver large parts of the new plant to Tobolsk in 2010 and 2011 and to go on stream some time mid 2012. Valued at around Euro 450 million, this plant currently ranks as one of the most significant investments in the Russian petrochemical industry, said Linde.

Meanwhile, Linde will plan and oversee construction of a gas separation and ethylene plant in West-Siberian Novy Urengoy for the chemicals company Novy Urengoy Gas and Chemical Complex (NGCC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian company Gazprom. This project is worth around Euro47 million for Linde. The ethane cracker will have an annual capacity of around 420,000 tonnes of ethylene a year. Construction work is already underway here. NGCC is currently building a chemical complex in Novy Urengoy, where the ethylene generated at the Linde plant will be used to make polyethylene plastics.

Linde has also closed a long-term agreement with the steel company ZAO ‘Kaluga Research and Production Electrometallurgical Plant’ (KNPEMZ), to supply the company with industrial gases at its production site in Vorsino (80 km south-west of Moscow). Linde will construct an on-site air separation unit with an investment volume of Euro37 million for this project.

The new ASU will have a production capacity of 9,000 Nm3/h of gaseous oxygen and additional capacities for the production of liquefied gases to supply the merchant market, particularly in central Russia. It is estimated that the on-site facility will be supplying KNPEMZ with gaseous oxygen plus nitrogen and argon for its steel mill in Vorsino by mid 2011. KNPEMZ belongs to Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), one of the largest steel manufacturers worldwide.

“Gazprom, Sibur and NLMK represent the best the Russian Federation can offer today in the energy, petrochemical and steel market,” said Dr. Aldo Belloni, Member of the Executive Board of Linde AG. “We are honoured and pleased to be their partner for these three prestigious projects, both as a turn-key engineering contractor and as the leading gas company in Russia.”