Vladimir Putin indicated the main directions for the petrochemistry development in Russia

On December 1 the President of Russia held an online conference with the heads of the large-scales Russian petrochemical companies. During the conference, the participants discussed the future of Russian petrochemistry and indicated major problems of the industry development.

First of all, the President of Russia noted the importance of the petrochemical industry. The industry has great potential thanks to qualified employees, advanced technologies and a strong resource base. The large-scale projects, the volume of investments of which is about 5 billion rubles, must be implemented in order to take a more significant position in the world market and reduce imports. Today, 14 such large-scale projects are being implemented in the country. At the same time, the development of petrochemistry should not harm the environment: “It should be taken into account that compliance with environmental standards is an important factor in the competitiveness of products, -President noted. - Definitely, our county must increase the reuse of plastics, increase the share of secondary raw materials in the composition of goods and packaging ».

Development of law-tonnage chemistry and support for the synthetic rubber production were important parts of the discussion. Small-tonnage chemicals make up only 15% of all chemical products and some items are highly dependent on foreign suppliers.

Mikhail Sutyaginsky, the Head of Committee for the Chemical Industry of “Delovaya Rossiya” and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the AO GC Titan told about problems manufacturers face. He noted that, despite government support, such measures are not enough to maintain stable exports of synthetic rubbers, not least because of the high tariffs of natural monopolies.

“Export loss can be irrevocable, and we can’t sign “long” contracts now, because the share of energy and transportation costs in the cost of production has grown significantly, and It limits us, –noted he. – I propose to formulate measures to support both industrial enterprises and natural monopolies so that we are on an equal footing”.

Mikhail Sutyaginsky also shared his experience of introducing of environmental directions into the production process on the example of the work of the Group of companies Titan. Among the significant projects, he noted the organization of deep processing of grain, which creates the basis for the production of raw materials for biodegradable plastics, and new high-octane components, which make it possible to significantly reduce the environmental load.

During the conference such large-scale petrochemical companies as “Gazprom”, “Lukoil”, SIBUR, “Rosneft”, “TAIF”, “Tatneft”, “Russian Railways” and etc. presented their proposals for the industry development. The focus was on the development of the production of small and medium-sized polymers, synthetic rubbers, special chemicals, with an emphasis on the domestic market and polymer recycling in conjunction with the processing of household waste.

Vice-Premiers of Russian government Victoria Abramchenko, Yuri Borisov, Alexander Novak and Marat Khusnullin and also heads of federal departments - Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services Irek Fayzullin and Minister of Energy Nikolay Shulginov took part in the conference.

During this dialogue with manufacturers, quite specific solutions to the voiced problems were proposed. Thus, the Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, referring to the production of synthetic rubbers, noted that the amount of resources that the government can allocate to support this direction may amount to about 3 billion rubles.

As the result of the conference a number of instructions to the government were formulated. First of all, President of Russia assigned a task to prepare a complex of measures for the law-tonnage and medium-tonnage chemistry production development in Russia until 2030 with growth of unit capacity on 70%, and also specify a list of priority projects with wide multiplicative effect in this sector. Government will create a complex of measures, including tax measures, to stimulate synthetic rubbers production, and also to use and develop production of recycled polymers to reduce the environmental burden.

Back