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On September 17, the government appointed the investment adviser and legal consultant for the project to expand the port of Taman in the Krasnodar Territory by building a new dray-cargo seaport. The modernized Taman port will be used to export Russian products, so as to take Russian export flows away from the Ukrainian and Turkish Black Sea ports.

The project includes building integrated port facilities for the transshipment of bulk, general and container cargo, as well as hydraulic structures, power facilities and other utilities, railways and motor roads. The new port will not rival the other local ports, but will rather complement them by handling various types of cargo and providing other cargo services. The solutions that are being developed and introduced will enable the port to operate all year round, to prevent vehicle idle time and avoid off-shore reloading of ships.

The project is being implemented as a public-private partnership and involves the Ministry of Transport, the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport, the Rosmorport state company, and the Rostransmodernizatsia state company.

RMP Taman has been appointed the project operator. The potential private-sector participants include Global Ports Investments PLC, EuroChem, United Grain Company, Suek, National Container Company, Rusal, Gazprom Export and others.

The total project costs, including private property, are estimated at RUR228bn ($7.1bn,), of which RUR76.04bn ($2.36bn) will be provided by the government,* RUR39.46bn ($1.2bn) will come from quasi-government funds, and RUR112.54bn ($3.5bn) from other sources.

The VEGAS LEX law firm, the organizational and legal consultant for the project, and the InfraONE First Infrastructure Company (investment and financial consultant) will form a consortium to draft a project information memorandum. They will identify the project’s economic, financial and legal parameters, and work out arrangements for more efficient use of state property at the port, and draft the legal parameters of the project’s organizational and legal structure based on project finance arrangements with government contribution such as PPP.

VEGAS LEX Partner Albert Eganyan, who heads the consortium, said: “A wise investment arrangement and structuring of the project will help not only combine state and private funding, but will create opportunities for all Russian industrial majors to be involved.”

For more information on the consortium’s operation, please contact Marina Zhegulina or Antonina Gromova at the consortium press office at +7 (495) 933 08 00. 

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The Government Directive No. 1604-r of September 7, 2013, orders the launch of an investment project, Building of a Dry-Cargo Port of Taman (hereinafter the Project) and the development of the existing port infrastructure in the western part of the Taman Peninsula. The project calls for building facilities for handling 93.8mn metric tons of dry cargo on an accrual basis beginning 2017. The new facilities will be mainly used for export operations. The project is part of the Federal Target Program to develop Russia’s transport system in 2010-2020, with allocated government funding at RUR76.04bn ($2.36bn). The bulk of the financing will be provided in 2016-2020.