Italian contractor Maire Tecnimont has signed several agreements with Russian companies during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which took place on Jun. 6-8.

One of the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) relates to the construction of a greenfield methanol plant in the port of Ust Luga, the biggest port in the Baltic Sea. The plant will have a capacity of 5,000 t/d and investment costs have been estimated initially at more than €1 billion.

The partners in the project include the Safmar Group, one of Russia’s largest industrial and financial companies, and New Gavan, the owner of the Novaya Gavan sea terminal in Ust Luga port. The companies will now discuss a joint development agreement, which, among other things, will initiate the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase, under the coordination of main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor Tecnimont along with a Russian design institute.

At the same time, the partners intend to set up a joint venture and closely collaborate on the project’s structuring activities in order to raise non-recourse financing from international banks, supported by one or more export credit agencies.

Maire Tecnimont also signed an MoU with Russia’s Gazprombank for financing oil, gas and petrochemical projects in the Russian Federation and CIS countries. The agreement will allow Gazprombank to fund projects for clients of the Milan-based group, in particular the purchase of Russian industrial equipment.

Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO of Maire Tecnimont, said the contractor has been active in Russia since the 1930s, completing more than 80 oil & gas, petrochemicals and fertilizer plants. He commented: “These MoUs provide further evidence of the Group’s strategic and proactive approach focused on an early involvement in clients’ investment initiatives, including their financing architecture.”

In separate news, the contractor is working with Italian oil and petrochemicals giant Eni to develop technology for converting solid urban waste and non-recyclable plastic into hydrogen and methanol.

Eni and Maire Tecnimont subsidiary NextChem will assess the technical and financial impact of the high-temperature gasification process, which Eni could implement at its industrial sites in Italy. According to Maire Tecnimont, Eni has already shown interest in evaluating the “Waste-to-Hydrogen” project at its bio-refinery in Porto Marghera and has carried out a feasibility study in collaboration with NextChem.

Describing the partnership with Eni as an “exceptionally important” step for the project, Folgiero said: “Energy transition requires the industrialization of new transformation processes and with NextChem we are ready to respond to the growing demand for change.”