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Russian corporation eyes construction of a new Arctic port

The AEON Corporation is ready to invest $890 million into the project

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/. Roman Trotsenko’s AEON Corporation discusses with Russia’s railway monopoly RZD construction of the Indiga port in the Nenets Autonomous Region and a railway line to it. The company may invest in the project 60 billion rubles ($890 million).

"We continue discussions with RZD, but a decision is still due," Trotsenko told reporters on Wednesday. "We have made the project’s estimates, we hope the Railways will support it."

"We still need to make additional estimates, as there are problems with connecting to the Sverdlov railway line, but this is the only, first of all, the most close to Kuzbass project to transport the locally produced coals in any direction - 400,000 km to the east or 3,300 km to the west," he continued. "Thus, it would be the shortest route to big water."

"The project would mean the new quality for the Russian transport infrastructure, as we shall receive the high-tonnage access to the Northern Sea Route, to its unfreezing part," he added. "We like the project very much, and now we continue working on it."

According to him, the corporation is ready to invest 60 billion rubles in the project. As for the railway part, a respective decision may be made in 2019. One of the forms to implement the project is to have a concession.

The project’s term may be between 5 and 15 years, and the complex’s total cost is around 300 billion rubles ($4.5 billion).

The project would not be an alternative to the Baikal-Amur (BAM) or Trans-Siberian (TransSib) Railways, he continued. "Expanding BAM and TransSib could be if additionally we receive, say 150 million tonnes of [transported] cargo," he said. "Here, we speak about the target of about 30 million tonnes."

The Indiga Port project

Initially, the port was planned to serve export of liquefied natural gas, but later on the idea was rejected, as Rosneft had not receive a license.

Under the recent project, the port will serve export of up to 50 million tonnes of coal. The port and the railway line to it are estimated at 258 billion rubles, where 198 billion ($2.94 billion) will come in state investments.

The project’s investors may be Kuzbassrazrezugol (a coal producer), Andrey Melnickenko’s SUEK, and Roman Trotsenko’s AEON.