MOSCOW, December 19Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law lifting the ban on the placement of specialized storage facilities for the storage and transshipment of ammonia, methanol, ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate within the boundaries of water protection zones in seaports. The document was published on the official portal of legal information and will come into force in 10 days.
The law was developed in order to develop port capacities in the Russian Federation for transshipment of hazardous liquid, hazardous dry and non-hazardous dry mineral fertilizers, ammonia and methanol.
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As Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin explained, due to sanctions, Russian manufacturers lost access to the corresponding port infrastructure abroad, which made transport logistics extremely difficult. According to the explanatory note, we are talking about the seaports of Ukraine and the Baltic countries, through which domestic companies previously transshipped relevant products.
As Mishustin noted, annually it is necessary to ensure the transportation by sea of about 6 million tons of mineral fertilizers, for which it is necessary to create our own facilities. As Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Mikhail Yurin noted, the Russian authorities expect that the restoration of the export of mineral fertilizers will annually bring the budget an additional 5 billion rubles.
To achieve this, the law amends the Water Code, removing restrictions on the placement of appropriate specialized storage facilities in the immediate vicinity of the coastline of seaports. The list of such ports was approved by the Russian government. Related changes were made to the laws “On Environmental Protection”, “On Environmental Expertise” and to the Town Planning Code.
To avoid negative impacts on the environment, projects for the construction of storage facilities undergo a state environmental assessment. In addition, their construction, reconstruction and operation are possible only if they are equipped with structures and systems that prevent pollution of water bodies.
Previously, the Water Code prohibited the placement of chemical, explosive, toxic, poisonous and noxious substances within the boundaries of water protection zones. Such substances include many commercial products of the chemical industry of the Russian Federation, the largest of which in terms of export volume through seaports are ammonia, methanol, ammonium nitrate (ammonium nitrate) and potassium nitrate.
At the same time, the territory located within the borders seaport within 500 meters from the coastline, belongs to the water protection zone of the sea. This restriction, according to the explanatory note, did not allow the construction of specialized complexes in Russian seaports for transshipment of such cargo into sea transport.