Tatarstan President visits construction site of Ammonium plant

On May 15, during his visit to the construction site of Ammonium plant in Mendeleevsk region, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov inspected the construction process and held a meeting on issues of implementing this large-scale project.

Rustam Minnikhanov was shown one of the enterprise’s workshops, where the commissioning of the equipment is underway. Tatarstan President also looked around the central operator’s station, construction site of the cargo terminal and finished products storage area.

Director General of OAO “Ammonium” Sergey Shevchenko said that the plant will produce 2050 tonnes of ammonia or 1400 tonnes of ammonia and up to 680 tonnes of methanol per 24 hours. Methanol will become the raw material for petrochemical enterprises of the republic. Carbamide and ammonium nitrate, nitrogen fertilizer for the agricultural industry, will be made of ammonia at the plant, he added.

Opening the meeting, Tatarstan President noted that a very important period of commissioning works is coming and, therefore, some topical issues need to be discussed. “Our task is to launch the plant n August 2015,” R. Minnikhanov pointed out.

Sergey Shevchenko said about the implementation of the project. The enterprise is being built by the Russian contractor OAO “NIIK” and foreign contractor Chinese-Japanese consortium. Currently, 1215 people are involved in the project from the Russian side. To date, the Russian contrator has spent 3.8 billion of the amount totaling to 6.9 billion roubles.

The foreign contractor’s scope of works makes 1.06 billion US dollars, including 0.27 billion US dollars for construction and commissioning works. As of today, 65.7 per cent of construction and commissioning works have been done. The Chinese side has employed 1127 people. This number will increase up to 1400 by the end of May. According S. Shevchenko, 3,000 people will work at the construction site during the peak period in summer in order to finish construction and commissioning works by the end of the year and proceed to the commissioning of the equipment.

Sergey Shevchenko reported on the construction process of a number of key facilities. He also said that the company concluded agreements on the training of specialists with secondary specialized colleges of the republic. This summer, a group of specialists will go to Indonesia to study the technological processes at similar plants.

Representatives of the foreign consortium also made a report at the meeting.

Head of the Volga Federal Service for Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision Boris Petrov reported on the results of inspections for compliance with safety requirements done at the construction site "Ammony".

Summing up, Rustam Minnikhanov asked to prepare the minutes of the meeting, which should include all of the comments made at the meeting. He also drew contractor’s attention to the need to intensify work during  the summer period.