Munich, 21 June 2012 â€" Technology company The Linde Group has received an engineering contract for the licensing and front end engineering design (FEED) of one of the world's largest ethylene plants in Tobolsk, Western Siberia. The contract was awarded by Russia's largest petrochemical company, SIBUR LLC. The two companies signed an agreement today in St. Petersburg.

"We are delighted to be working on this project and continuing our successful collaboration with Russia's most important petrochemical company," said Professor Dr Aldo Belloni, Member of the Executive Board of Linde AG. "We also hope that this agreement will lead to further key contracts for our engineering business in this Eastern European growth market."

The ethylene plant is to be built at the petrochemical complex "ZapSibNeftekhim" in Tobolsk, which is being planned by the company ZapsibNeftekhim, a subsidiary of SIBUR. Once finished, the new plant will produce around 1.5 million tons per annum (tpa) of ethylene, 500,000 tpa of propene and 100,000 tpa of butadiene from the feedstocks ethane, propane and n-butane. The products produced by the plant are important building blocks for the plastics manufacturing industry.

The FEED services provided by Linde are the first step in the project to realise the new plant. The Group’s work will provide a foundation for the detailed engineering and construction phase. Linde’s services also include a cost estimate, which will be used by SIBUR to inform the final investment decision.

Linde is currently constructing a polypropylene plant for SIBUR at its Tobolsk site. The unit has an annual capacity of 500,000 tons and is set to go on stream next year. This project is currently one of the key investments in Russia’s petrochemical industry.

SIBUR is the leading petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe. It covers the entire process chain from gas treatment through the production of upstream products for the plastics industry (monomers), plastics and synthetic rubber to the finishing of plastics.

About The Linde Group
The Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 50,500 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide. In the 2011 financial year, it achieved sales of EUR 13.787 bn. The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards long-term profitable growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services. Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment â€" in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. The Group is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development.

For more information, see The Linde Group online at http://www.linde.com.

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