The largest ammonia manufacturer can be left without sales channels

OJSC "Togliattiazot" will soon threaten another logistics crisis. This year, a chemical plant capable of producing more than 3 million tons of ammonia per year has already experienced problems with transporting products along the Togliatti -Odessa ammonia, which should provide export supplies of the plant. Today, the technical condition of the ammonia, as they say, raises many questions, and the circumstances of its privatization can again attract the attention of supervisory and law enforcement agencies.

The Togliatti-Odessa ammonium is a unique structure with a length of 2417 km, built in the 80s with the participation of American companies. In 1995, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a special law on the creation and privatization of Transammiaca JSC. According to the Law, Transammiaca should not have been sold freely. He was transferred to state ownership, but 51% of the shares were immediately transferred to Togliattiazot JSC. For this, Togliattiazot was supposed to make an additional issue of shares in an amount equivalent to the value of 51% of the transammiac shares, and transfer them to the state. In turn, these shares should have been sold at an open investment competition with the condition of sending funds at Transammiaca. The conditions of the investment competition were also adopted: modernization of the ammonia and the construction of two bounces from it. A additional minion of shares of Togliattiazot JSC was held, after which the cost of 51% of the shares of Transammiac corresponded to 6.1% of the Togliattiazot shares.

In 1996, 6.1% of the Togliattiazot shares were transferred to the state and put up for a competition with investment conditions. The Tafko company, which was controlled by Togliattiazot owner, won the Tafko company, which proposed to invest $ 7 million in the modernization of ammonia -pipeline and the construction of bouncers from it, which other Russian chemical enterprises could use. However, then Tafko sold shares to Vladimir Mahla, but without investment conditions. On this fact, in 1999-2000, investigations of the Prosecutor General and the Federal Property Fund were conducted. However, the bounces were never built, and the ammonium itself was not modernized from the moment of construction. In 2004, the head of the Ministry of Antimonopoly Legislation, Ilya Yuzhanov accused Togliattiazot and Transammiac of the actual privatization of the natural monopoly resource, which is the ammonium. “This case can have very difficult consequences for the country's economy and become a threat to its national security,” the minister said then.

In 2005, a criminal case was instituted against Vladimir Makhlaya on charges of tax failure and fraud on especially large sizes, and he disappeared abroad, where he was still located. Since then, the problems and the technical condition of the equipment at the Togliattiazot itself have become aggravated: last year, the Rostekhnadzor check revealed more than 500 gross violations in the field of industrial safety and labor protection, the situation with industrial injuries also does not inspire optimism, there are accidents with death.

Things are not better with a monopolized ammonia, although the leadership of Togliattiazot is trying not to attract great attention to this. It is possible that the stubborn reluctance of the company to allow other enterprises to the pipe is associated precisely with the fact that they may be interested in its technical condition.

On December 16 last year, the pumping of ammonia was discontinued by the UKRHIMTRANSAMIMIC UGP, which is operating the Ukrainian section of the ammonia. The Ukrainian side did not comment on the incident in any way, but the most obvious reason is the drop in the pipe, which is why Ukrchimtransammiac began to fail control and measuring instruments at the border. On which section of the 2417-kilometer pipeline problems arose, the leadership of “Togliattiazot” did not say that it was not surprising: ammonia is an extremely poisonous substance, the couples of which have a suffocating effect and are able to cause toxic edema of the lungs and severe damage to the nervous system in people, and also cause significant harm to the environment. Judging by the fact that the pumping managed to resume only on January 18, the problems with the ammonia were quite serious. Instead, “Togliattiazot” explained what happened to the “sabotage” from the Ukrainian side, although it is not entirely clear why Ukrhimtransammiac to work at a loss - the losses of the enterprise at the beginning of January were very significant. At the Togliattiazot itself, production was practically stopped, since most of the plant’s products are sold precisely abroad.

In the future, such situations may become more frequent, because an engineering miracle who does not have analogues in the world cannot work for more than 30 years without overhaul. To carry ammonias with tanks is not a way out, especially since the plant does not work out in the best way - this year an accident with leaks of ammonia and ammonia water “Togliattiazot” has already been recorded in the area of ​​Novosibirsk and Syzran.

Apparently, the leadership of “Togliattiazot” does not exclude the most pessimistic scenario and was concerned about the construction of the transshipment terminal in the port of Taman, although it would be much more logical to wait for such actions from enterprises that “Togliattiazot” does not allow an ammonia. Moreover, the terminal by the leadership of the plant is considered as a priority investment project.

However, the construction of the Taman terminal "Togliattiazot" has been stretching for almost 10 years. Due to the lack of necessary permits and approvals, it is still running into the rigid resistance of the local administration, the population and ecologists. So in case of new incidents with Transammiak, which now look almost inevitable, the leadership of the plant should have thought about other “spare tracks”.