Rosneft seeks US$10 billion support for super-shipyard project
Russian oil major Rosneft has called on the national government to provide up to 400 billion rubles (US$10 billion) for the building of the Zvezda supershipyard in the Russian Far East, according to an official spokesperson of the United Shipbuilding Company, writes Eugene Gerden.
Due to the current recession in Russia and the devaluation of the national currency as a result of Western sanctions, a consortium of Zvezda investors, headed by Rosneft, is currently short of funds for implementation of the project, and hopes for state support.
Plans are for the largest share of funding to be invested in the establishment technology and production of components and equipment to support Zvezda. Sanctions mean that many necessary items can no longer be imported.
It is planned that additional funding may come from the Russian National Wealth Fund, a sovereign wealth fund, which invests in riskier, higher return ventures, as well as federal budget expenditure, despite the fact that this may cause local protests.
The Russian government hopes that the new shipyard can be highly profitable, taking into account that its porfolio of orders is planned to reach RUB 780 billion by 2025.