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Industry news PLASTIC PIPES 2022

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA SAYS

WIDER APPLICATION OF

PLASTIC PIPES IS A NECESSITY kremlin.ru

ladimir Putin, the President of Rus- cally and overseas, and increase efficiency Marat Khusnullin, Vice-Premier, also
V sia, was in Tobolsk on 1 December and production volumes. raised the subject of plastic pipes in his
2020. He visited ZapSibNeftekhim, a pet- “The priority task is to build steady speech. He said that the Ministry of Con-
rochemical complex of SIBUR, which had demand for Russian petrochemical prod- struction was implementing five pilot
reached designed capacity. The President ucts – we should create our own domestic projects through the 60+ Programme for
then held a video conference on the stra- market first of all,” highlighted Vladimir the replacement of the worn networks
tegic development of the petrochemical Putin. with over 60% wear – he also noted that
industry. The President of Russia highlighted this programme requires colossal finan-
Whilst analysing the development of the the high efficiency of plastic pipe prod- cial investments of hundreds of billions
sector, the head of state pointed out: “The ucts. He gave an example: “In the hous- of roubles. Because of this, it is necessary
petrochemical industry has shown good ing and utilities sector, plastic pipes help to develop support mechanisms for pipe
and confident results in the last few years: to save up to 50% of costs for servicing of producers. “I have a request and a proposal
new modern facilities are being launched, water and sewage pipelines. The share of when drafting the instructions to give us
production volumes are increasing, import solutions involving plastic products in the the opportunity to work out an economic
dependency is gradually declining.” He housing and utilities sector in our country model for pipe replacement, so that pipe
highlighted that the Russian petrochemi- is 35%, whereas in Europe, which I men- producers, together with the Ministry of
cal industry has enormous growth poten- tioned before, it stands at 85%. Demand for Construction, the Ministry of Economic
tial and domestic producers are able to such innovative materials will only grow. Development and the Ministry of Finance,
satisfy domestic demand for high-quality It is important this demand is satisfied work out the mechanisms of stimulus,
products and also to take more significant predominantly through purchases from such as leasing, instalment plans and in-
positions in the global market. According domestic producers. During the course of terest rate compensation, because we ur-
to the President, to make this possible, it the meeting we need to think how it can gently need to replace a staggering num-
is necessary to enhance the promotion of be done and what additional actions are ber of pipes,” said Mr. Khusnullin.
Russian petrochemical products domesti- required.” Vagit Alekperov, Head of LUKOIL oil
company, was present at the meeting and
asked to share his proposals on the draft
instructions that were planned at the
end of the meeting. In particular, he high-
lighted the need for a wider application of
polymers in oil and gas production, i.e. in
the construction of oilfield pipelines. “We
currently have Construction Standards
and Regulations for the application of plas-
tic pipes in both the utilities and gas sec-
tors but, unfortunately, there are none for
application of plastic pipes in the oil and
gas industry or the construction of oilfield
pipelines. Currently our colleagues in Sau-
di Arabia use more than 400 km of plastic
pipes a year for the repairs of their oil pipe-
lines.” Mr Alekperov said that LUKOIL had
positive experience of operating plastic
pipelines and thinks it should be scaled up.
This initiative was supported and the oil

4 industry information and analytical digest