CASE STUDY TAF

TATARSTAN PROJECT
CASE STUDY TAF TATARSTAN PROJECT

Four years of planning, engineering and all of these transports in the most demanding
execu­tion. Construction of a custom-built jetty to time frame. Read this story of deugro‘s logistics THE PROJECT
handle weights up to 2,000 tons. A multinational solu­
tion in one of the most complex and
team of engineers and logistics experts to execute challenging environments! In May 2009, Tatarstan President Rustam awarded to a consortium of Mitsubishi Heavy Timeline
Minnikhanov visited Japan and signed a Industries (MHI), the Sojitz Corporation of Japan
- P roject request for information:
memorandum of intent to construct a methanol, and China National Chemical Engineering
Winter 2010
The Destination urea and a
­ mmonia production plant. (CNCEC).
- Evaluation and construction: 2011 –
Russia. A territory almost twice the size of the For countries around the world, infrastructure is first transports on road in November
In November 2010, Ammoni awarded the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is leading the
United States, or four times as big as the Euro­pean both an asset and a liability: an asset because it 2011
engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) consortium and was responsible for the overall
Union. A huge country with far-from-ordinary is the basis of all economic activity, but a liability - First shipment to jetty in 2012
contracts for the plant, establishing a new construction of the plant. Sojitz will undertake all
challenges and mega-projects requiring logistics because it must be maintained, updated, - Six shipments to jetty in summer 2013:
fertilizer complex in the town of Mendeleevsk in of the logistics requirements and transport
solutions that are both complex and unique. modernized and expanded. This is no different in 30,000 FRT, heaviest piece 462 tons
the Republic of Tatarstan. The contract was coordination for the project within Russia. The
­Russia, but infrastructure here is also subject to a - Final transports expected by middle of
awarded at the Asia-Pacific Economic Chinese ­ CNCEC will be responsible for the
number of additional challenges, such as the 2015
Cooperation (APEC) summit in Tokyo, Japan. construction of the plant.
­nation’s sheer geographical size as the world’s
largest country and temperature variations in
­
The integrated fertilizer complex will produce The natural gas feedstock for the Tatarstan
some regions of up to 60 °C between summer
­ammonia, granulated urea and methanol using complex will be supplied by ZAO Tatgazinvest,
and wintertime.
natural gas as feedstock. It will also be one of the a subsidiary of Gazprom. Annually, the
largest plants to simultaneously produce ­methanol company will supply about 800 million cubic
and ammonia. It is located about 1,000 meters of gas for fertilizer and methanol production.
kilo­meters southeast of Moscow.
The Tatarstan fertilizer complex is the largest
The plant is scheduled to become operational in ­project of its kind to be built in Russia in the past
2015. The cost of construction is estimated to 20 years. The complex is being built in response
exceed RUB 46.2 billion (USD 1.6 billion). The to Russia’s plans to improve its agricultural and
payback period for the project will be about industrial developments. The rise in food
­seven years. produc­ tion necessitated by a growing global
popula­tion will increase the demand for fertilizers.
The EPC contract for the urea fertilizer plant was Cargo arrives at jetty.

THE TEAM
deugro Moscow deugro Japan

Has its own transport and mechanical Responsible for the offshore shipping scope to
engineering resources responsible for jetty the logistics hub in Antwerp and contracting
construction, cargo operation and all inland ­party of MHI for jetty construction.
transportation to site, as well as client consul-
tancy services for obtaining customs Dachser Germany
single code resolution status for (deugro‘s JV partner)
the project.
Responsible for the overall transportation contract
with the Sojitz Corporation, direct truck transport
from Antwerp to the job site, rail transport and
sea freight from Antwerp to Ust Luga, including
all Russian port operations.

deugro Germany

The communications and coordination hub

­between the teams in Russia, Japan and the JV Crossing the highway near Mendeleevsk, Russia
partner Dachser Air and Sea GmbH, Germany.

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THE CONCEPT
Starting in 2010, deugro Moscow conducted its Given the expected weights of up to 500 tons
first studies in cooperation with deugro‘s and dimensions of up to 70 meters, we had to
Transport Engineering Division, aiming to create think completely outside the box. It was obvious
a technically sound and commercially f­easible that we would have to get as close as possible
logistics solution. to the final site destination through the Russian
­river system. Because the Kama river water levels
had extreme seasonal variation, barge transport
and roll-off operations would not be feasible.

We therefore developed the concept of a

permanent jetty construction to ensure safe
unloading operations throughout the navigation
period, ­generally limited to May to October of
each year.

In order to operate river sea vessels at the jetty,

we had to set up a temporary bonded customs
zone, through an application with local customs
in Tatarstan.

Road transport from jetty to site required partial

passage through a National Reserve Park.
Environmental studies, which required close
­ Lifting operation at jetty
cooperation with local and state authorities for
The Scope
final permit approval, were carried out
accordingly. In order to consolidate all cargoes The overall scope consisted of ocean freight cargo, from container to overdimensional cargo,
from worldwide origins for final shipment into to Antwerp, interim storage and respective and heavy lifts up to 462 tons. Various modes of
Russia, the deugro team was looking for the ideal consolidation for on-carriage to the job site in transport were used, including ocean freight, air
hub in Europe. The Antwerp port was chosen Tatarstan, Mendeleevsk, involving all types of freight, road, rail and river sea vessel transport.
because almost all major liner services and
parcel operators from Asia and other origins call
at this port, thus avoiding extra costs for minimum
inducement. More­ over, the facilities would
A Side Story
provide all necessary crane and handling
equipment.
Pirat
The area around the national park was
From Antwerp, various means of transport used
a home for wild dogs. One of them
during the execution of the project were available.
adop­ ted the area of the jetty as his
Floating crane Brabo in Antwerp, Belgium
­domestic yard and became our guard
dog at night, after the workers left.
Our crane driver and the dog, who we
named Pirat, became friends, and Pirat
found a new home with our colleague
from Russia after the construction work
was done.
View inside the office container at the deugro jetty

- T otal of 154 heavy lifts

- Investment volume: 1.7 billion USD
- Investment in jetty construction,
route improvements and infrastructure:
Start of jetty construction 15.5 million USD
- deugro and Dachser moved a total
volume of 110,000 FRT for the TAF
Tatarstan project.

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 THE CHALLENGES
Several site inspections and route surveys were not only design a jetty, but also to ensure that its
necessary to evaluate an ideal location for a design would preserve the nature surrounding
­material offloading jetty. We surveyed more than the port area.
200 kilometers of the Kama riverside and more
than 500 kilometers of the road network in the Because everyone involved in the project was
area nearby plant construction, scouted six highly experienced and talented, we were able to
­locations, and achieve this ambi­
­finally decided “Our biggest challenge in arranging tious goal with­ out
on Elabuga. At any sig­ni­fi­cant
the time, Elabuga
the transports was the missing further issues. Our
had the best infrastructure.” engineers design­ed
connection to the the jetty in coop-
backcountry and the distance to the final job site eration with local experts and construction began
was only 38 kilometers. Elabuga is located next in January 2012.
to a nature reserve, so it was our responsibility to

Obstacles to Overcome

The continental weather in Russia implied an­other

obstacle for our teams to overcome: river sea
­vessels have a limited navigation period (mainly
from May to October), depending on the
weather and ice conditions, and we had to
­
unload six vessels in 2013 during this time period.

Furthermore, we faced the challenge of having to

construct the jetty within a national park, an effort
that required extensive negotiations with several
local authorities. These negotiations continued
when we planned and executed the transports
from the jetty to the job site.

The on-carriage of goods was likewise

The Solution compli­cated with regards to the technical
demands. ­ Russian infrastructure allows warm
„When I told our owner and CEO that deugro
water pipes to be above ground. However, when
had to prepare to design and construct an
these pipes intersect with a road, they create an
unloading jetty for a project in the Republic of
overhead ­obstacle. Therefore the pipes had to be
Tatarstan, he immediately supported the idea to
dis­assembled for the period of transport, but
make this an integrated part of deugro‘s project
logistics solution,“ said Klaus Hilpert, deugro
re­assembled in time for the arrival of cold weather YOUR PARTNER FOR INDUSTRIAL PROJECTS IN RUSSIA
– a strict deadline, dated middle of August, was
Group Executive Vice President.
imposed by the authorities. deugro Projects, LLC is a
key provider for:
While we handled design, engineering and
• Pre-feasibility studies & feed, project
Heating pipes before and after disassembling construction in partnership with Russia‘s most The Execution
logistics, re-supply, supply chain solutions
repu­table and reliable technical design bureaus
Again, we were acting under pressure, with the • Own Transport Engineering Division
and civil construction companies, the complicated
knowledge that all of Elabuga would be without • Customs handling services
fiscal and legal implications of such a venture
access to hot water in the cold autumn and w ­ inter • Extensive agent and network support in
were assigned to the consulting firm Ernst &
months if we were unable to achieve the Russia and CIS
Young in Moscow.
ambi­tious goal of unloading six ships in six weeks.

With excellent cooperation between our local

deugro teams in Russia and the local authorities,
we were able to achieve this ambitious goal six
days earlier than expected.

6 7
Contact:

deugro Projects, LLC

Nizhniy Kislovskiy pereulok, 5/1
125009 Moscow | Russia

Phone: +7 495 6428133 | E-mail: [email protected]

Visit: deugro.com /deugro