MOSCOW (MRC) - The Ministry of Finance and Rosneft have disagreed over measures to support the Eastern Petrochemical Complex (VNHK) project, Interfax reports.
"The company has formulated its proposals. We have formulated the conditions to which we agree. A decision should simply be made here at the level of government leadership," Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov told reporters.
"The relevant reports have been submitted to the government. In principle, indeed, we believe that VNHK is a necessary, useful project for the country, but the level of support that it requires, the position of the company and ours on this issue are still at odds and, accordingly, we need an arbiter in the person of governments to make a final decision", - he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier instructed the government, together with Rosneft and Gazprom, to consider measures to support VNHK, as well as to study the possibility of providing VNHK with natural gas from the resource base of Gazprom. The deadline for the execution of the order was set until May.
The head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, said in August 2020 that the company was ready to resume construction of the VNHK under fiscal conditions that ensure the profitability of the project. He pointed out that Rosneft has temporarily postponed the implementation of the project due to changes in the tax regime. According to Sechin, the company needs stability in this matter, which would allow planning the economy of this enterprise for at least 30 years. Putin then instructed the head of Rosneft to draw up and submit proposals.
Rosneft planned to build an oil refining and petrochemical complex in the Primorsky Territory in two stages - oil refining with a capacity of 12 m tonnes per year and petrochemicals with a capacity of 3.4 m tonnes per year.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
Rosneft is the world's largest publicly traded oil company. The company accounts for about 5% of global oil production, and its proven reserves in the international category will exceed 5 billion tons of oil equivalent. Rosneft's structure includes the Lisichansk Refinery, Angarsk Polymer Plant, and Ufaorgsintez after acquiring a 60.16% stake in Bashneft on October 12, 2016.
MRC