ESN Group agreed with Japanese Marubeni to supply 0.5 million tons of methanol from the future plant

ESN Group agreed with Japanese Marubeni to supply 0.5 million tons of methanol from the future plant

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The ESN group of businessman Grigory Berezkin and Japan's Marubeni Corporation have signed a binding contract for the supply of methanol in the volume of 0.5 million tons per year for a period of 20 years from a plant under construction in the Amur Region, the ESN group reported..

ESN is building a methanol plant with a capacity of 1 million tons per year in the town of Skovorodino, Amur Region, based on its own railway oil terminal. The volume of investments in the first stage of the project is 55 billion rubles. Launch scheduled for 2024.

The raw material for methanol production will be natural gas from the Gazprom gas pipeline (MCX: GAZP) - Power of Siberia, which runs 15 kilometers from the plant.

The head of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Far East Georgy Sperling said that Gazprom is ready for annual deliveries of about 1.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas for the first stage of the new methanol plant.

The start of gas sampling for commissioning at production is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023, he added..

"I know there are plans to develop the project and double the volume of production", - said Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin, whose words are quoted in the message.

The project will be financed by a syndicate of banks with the participation of VEB.RF.

(Oksana Kobzeva, Anastasia Lyrchikova)