EuroChem has held public hearings on the engineering communications project for a methanol production plant and a port terminal for products shipment in the Kingisepp District of the Leningrad Region, IAA PortNews correspondent reports.
An agreement on cooperation under the project was signed at Saint-Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2021 between Leningrad Region Governor Alersandr Drozdenko and Eurochem Director General Vladimir Rashevsky.
EuroChem North-West-3 project foresees the construction of a modern facility from scratch with the application of the best available technologies for methanol production. The facility will have the maximum capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per year and will include a methanol pipeline and a port terminal for methanol shipment. Investments into the project are estimated at RUB 132 billion. It will generate about 300 new jobs. The facility is to be put into operation in 2025.
The new facility will be built within the territory of industrial zone Phosphorite in the Kingisepp District where EuroChem North-West-2 is building a pland for production ammonia and carbamide.
Technical methanol is intended for the chemical, wood chemical, pharmaceutical, oil, gas, microbiological and other industries. The product is to be delivered to the port of Ust-Luga from where it is to be shipped by seaborne transport. All the products are intended for exports.
When answering the question of IAA PortNews correspondent, Marat Davletkulov, Project Engineering Manager of EuroChem North-West-3, said: “The project document is being developed today and the company is looking into further implementation of the project. We are aware of the current situation in the market. There is a deadline (2025 — Ed.) but compliance with it will depend on numerous factors depending not on Eurochem but on the global markets. The capacity of the plant is still set at 8 thousand tonnes per day”.
The project of Eurochem is not the only methanol project in the Baltic region. Four companies used to declare their intent to build such facilities. One of them is Gas Synthes with its plans to implement a project in the port of Vysotsk (1.6 million tonnes of methanol per year with $1.5 billion of investments). Other projects are to be implemented in Ust-Luga. Ruschimcom is going to build a plant with annual capacity of 1.7 million tonnes and a shipment terminal with total investments estimated at EUR 1 billion. Safmar Group announced its plans to build a plant with annual capacity of 1.8 million tonnes for EUR 1 billion, Baltic Methanol LLC (controlled by Baltic Chemical Company) – a plant with annual capacity of 1.7 million tonnes with the delivery schedule for 2023.
Production of methanol is considered to be one of the most promising segments of gas-to-chemicals. Analysts expect the demand for methanol to grow 1.5 times by 2025 making 122 million tonnes per year. Methanol is used for production of synthetic natural gas, chemicals, fertilizers, marine fuel, electricity and consumer goods.
A vertically integrated company, EuroChem is expanding its mining, production and distribution capacities in key regions around the world.
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