Petrochemicals and life

The Prime Minister continued the practice of resolving corporate disputes

Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Nizhny Novgorod on the development of petrochemicals. Previously, a similar event had already taken place in Nizhnekamsk. Then, at the prime minister's direction, two major market players - SIBUR and Kazanorgsintez - were reconciled, but they could not agree on the terms of the contract for the supply of raw materials. This time the background was reminiscent of the course of events almost a year ago - Salavatnefteorgsintez and Kaustik could not agree. Just a week ago, the FAS opened a case of violation of competition on the part of Salavat, which is suspected of imposing unfavorable terms of the contract on Kaustik. Let us recall that Salavatnefteorgsintez is indirectly owned by Gazprom, and Kaustik is one of the main enterprises of the Bashkir Chemistry company.

Vladimir Putin arrived in Nizhny Novgorod without delay and immediately went to production - to the Kstovo petrochemical plant of SIBUR-neftekhim OJSC and to LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez LLC. Having delved into the technological process of processing associated gas, the prime minister went to the city administration for a meeting.

At the same meeting in November last year, Vladimir Putin already instructed the main market participants to switch to long-term contracts. Yesterday’s meeting had to begin with the same question. But if last time Mr. Putin showed awareness of individual cases of misunderstanding among the main players, then in Nizhny Novgorod the conversation was about general trends. Mr. Putin instructed, in connection with the commissioning of new gas condensate fields in Siberia, to pay more attention to the development of infrastructure and the removal of administrative restrictions for the creation of new petrochemical processing complexes. The head of government drew attention to the need to develop the production of new high-tech materials for use in construction.

After the prime minister's opening remarks, the meeting participants were able to receive information via video link from the places where the country's largest processing complexes are located - from Tobolsk, Tomsk, Angarsk, Kazan.

Vladimir Putin paid special attention to Kazanorgsintez, in the rescue of which the government took a direct part last year: firstly, by reconciling the company with SIBUR, which had inflated prices for raw materials, and secondly, by providing the company with a state guarantee for loans worth 10 billion rubles. As the prime minister was informed live from Kazan, Sberbank refinanced the company’s old debts in the amount of 26 billion rubles. at a reduced rate of 11%.

After the video conference, the closed part of the meeting began with a report from Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko, in which LUKOIL head Vagit Alekperov and the new president of Rosneft Eduard Khudainatov took part.

After the meeting, the head of the Ministry of Energy, Sergei Shmatko, said that the intervention of higher powers in the conflict between private owners turned out to be decisive this time too - a decision was made to resume supplies of raw materials to Caustic: “For us, the most important thing was the current situation at the plant, where it has been stopped since July production. The decision guarantees supplies within two months, during which time the parties must agree on a long-term contract.”

Yulia MIRONOVA, Nizhny Novgorod