SYKTYVKAR, September 13. /TASS/. The gas chemical complex in the Komi Region's Vorkuta polar city is due to be commissioned in 2031. The complex's cost is estimated at 200 billion rubles ($2.2 billion). The products - urea, ammonia and saltpeter - will be shipped along the Northern Sea Route, and that will require additional 200 km of railway and a port in Ust-Kara (the Nenets Autonomous Region), jointly estimated at another 100 billion rubles ($1.1 billion), the region's Governor Vladimir Uiba told reporters.
An agreement on the Vorkuta Chemical Complex was signed at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. The project will feature the Azot Group of Companies, the AEON and the VEB.RF Corporations. The complex will produce 1.2 million tons of ammonia and 1.7 million tons of urea per year, offering up to 2,000 jobs.
"The agreement was signed with the Azot Group of Companies. The project's implementation will change dramatically the idea of the Komi Region. In terms of investments, the gas chemical complex is much more expensive than the Syktyvkar LPK, built in the Soviet years <...>. Design is due in 2025, this is a standard project, and Azot has similar production facilities in other Russian regions. The designed capacity is due to be reached in 2031," the governor said.
The project became realistic when Roman Trotsenko, the AEON Corporation's founder, announced he would invest in the construction of a 200-km-long railway from Vorkuta to Ust-Kara and in the construction of the Ust-Kara port, estimated at 40 billion ($439 million) and 50-60 billion rubles ($549 - 660 million), respectively. The Northern Sea Route development and the icebreaker services solve the problem of the freezing port in Ust-Kara.
Taking into account such logistics plans, the AEON Corporation, where Vorkuta's city-forming enterprise Vorkutaugol is a part, considers building two new coal mines to develop another 300 billion tons of coal deposits. The construction of one mine is currently estimated at 15 billion rubles ($165 million).
Tax deductions to the Komi Region's budget from the gas chemical complex alone are estimated at 20 billion rubles ($220 million), which is one fifth of the region's all current revenues. About 2 billion rubles ($22 million) will be allocated to the Vorkuta city budget, he continued. "The project opens up huge opportunities in logistics and for all other businesses. From being a transport dead end Vorkuta is developing into a center of gas chemistry and into a transport hub," the governor said.
Addressing city problems
With the big players working in Vorkuta, the polar city will be able to address its two urgent problems - to upgrade the sewage treatment plants and the Usinsk water pipeline, supplying water to Vorkuta, villages and coal mines.
"The Krasnoyarsk Institute has completed the design <...> of the Usinsk water pipeline reconstruction, estimated at 15 billion rubles ($165 million) instead of originally planned 6.5 billion ($71 million). We plan to build two 56-km-long water pipeline branches in plastic with a diameter of 500 mm. The current water pipeline consists of two branches of 800 and 1000 mm each, but we do not need this amount of water. While in the past, in the Soviet years, Vorkuta's population was 200,000 - 250,000, now the population is optimal at 45,000 (about 56,000 people are registered in the city, though many live in other Russian regions - TASS)," the governor said in conclusion.