Cryogas to start building LNG plant in Kemerovo Region in 2024 - authorities

KEMEROVO. Aug 13 (Interfax) - Cryogas-Kuzbass LLC, a division of JSC Cryogas, will begin building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant with capacity of 12 tonnes per hour in the Topkinsky district of Kemerovo Region this year, the regional government's press service reported.

"The investment project includes six process trains. The first phase is planned for completion by 2026 and achievement of full capacity is scheduled for 2032," the press service said.

The plant's LNG "will be used as motor fuel for heavy mining equipment, transport and autonomous gasification of heating and power generating facilities," the region's acting governor, Ilya Seredyuk said in the press release.

"Investment in the project will total more than 7.5 billion rubles and 71 new jobs will be created," he said. It was reported earlier that the project would cost more than 7 billion rubles.

Cryogas-Kuzbass deputy CEO Denis Snitsky said at a Kuznetsk Basin development conference last November that the company plans to put first train of the plant, with capacity to produce 2 tonnes per hour, into operation at the end of 2025. The plant will have a total of six trains with equal capacity, giving it overall capacity to produce 12 tonnes of LNG per hour or 80,000 tonnes per year. According to a presentation given at the time, the project was scheduled for completion in 2033, but Snitsky told Interfax then that the actual timing "will depend on the formation of the market" and "everything will probably be carried out earlier."

The regional government press service said Cryogas is a developer of natural gas liquefaction technology. Its key area of import substitution is innovative development of its own technology using a mixed refrigerant.

Cryogas-Kuzbass LLC is wholly owned by Polyus Kholoda LLC, which already owns two operating mini LNG plants, Cryogas-Kaliningrad and Cryogas-Pskov.