Report: Linde may leave LNG plant construction in Ust-Luga

MOSCOW, Jun 21 (PRIME) -- Germany’s Linde, the EPC contractor and supplier of equipment for liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant Baltic LNG, may leave construction of a 19.5 million tonne LNG plant of RusGazDobycha and Gazprom in Ust-Luga, Kommersant business daily reported on Tuesday quoting sources familiar with the matter.

A source told Kommersant that the EPC contract would be terminated very soon, and that Gazprom and RusGazDobycha were looking for options like re-signing Linde’s contract with a third party. Another source told the business daily that the German company stated that rejection of cooperation with Gazprom was its principal position.

The shaking Baltic LNG project could hurt Gazprom’s construction of a gas chemical plant in Ust-Luga as the projects are technologically connected, Kommersant reported.

Linde also left a joint venture with Gazprom and RusGazDobycha that produces heat-exchanging units Severnyye Tekhnologii (Northern Technologies).

The German company has also left Amur Gas Chemical Plant of Russia’s Sibur and China’s Sinopes meant to produce 2.7 million tonnes of polymers per year. A Sibur spokesperson said that Linde had finished its work on the project, and that Sibur was working on adapting the project to the new economic conditions, Kommersant reported.

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