PRESS: Gazprom resumes talks with SABIC over Yamal proj

MOSCOW, Jan 14 (PRIME) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom has resumed talks with Saudi Arabia’s SABIC on participation in a gas chemical complex project on the Yamal Peninsula, business daily Vedomosti reported Thursday citing sources.

Gazprom held talks with representatives of SABIC at the end of December 2020, inviting the Saudi company to “share the risks” of the project, three sources said.

The resumption of negotiations is due to the high demand for gas chemistry and gas processing products in the world; earlier the project was stalled, as there was no confidence in its profitability, one of the sources said.

Gazprom is also considering Chinese companies as investors, but there have been no substantive negotiations with them yet.

Gazprom’s new project encompasses construction of two giant plants – a gas processing plant with a capacity of 37.8 billion cubic meters of gas and a gas chemical plant with a capacity of 2.1 million tonnes of polyethylene. The cost of the project was estimated at U.S. $15 billion, of which $9.9 billion was supposed to be attracted in the form of debt financing.

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