U.S. Firms to Build Soviet Plants

Two Connecticut companies signed an agreement in principle with the Soviet Union today to build two large petrochemical complexes in western Siberia at a cost of more than $20 billion.

Combustion Engineering Inc., a Stamford-based firm that will enter the project with McDermott International Inc. of Waterbury, announced at a news conference that the agreement was approved by Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov and would boost Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts to improve consumer goods supplies. The two complexes in Tomolsk and Surgut will use the rich natural gas reserves of Siberia to produce plastic and rubber used in consumer goods such as synthetic materials, clothes, tires and condoms.