Content №3 от 2020
Petrochemical industry in the Russian East - driving the economy or dragging it down?
The article deals with the challenges of petrochemical development in eastern Russia. It considers the most prominent peculiarities of the domestic petrochemical industry at the present moment and some crucial possible paths for its further improvement, taking into account the alternatives that domestic and foreign markets have to offer. We analyze both sectoral and regional aspects of new projects compared to recent international approaches to integrating petrochemistry in the social and economic development of territories. The article gives an economic assessment of a typical (model) polymer project in the Far East, showing its insufficient efficiency due to high costs. As one of the related fundamental problems, we outline the technological backwardness of the Russian petrochemical industry and some ways to overcome it through import substitution plus effective cooperation with foreign partners, which includes creating industrial petrochemical clusters in the eastern regions of the country.
The authors conclude that it is necessary to strengthen the state’s coordinating role when it comes to expensive petrochemical projects in the Russian East. Such a policy aims to rationalize costs, boost the economic efficiency of projects, and expand the opportunities for interregional and interindustry cooperation.
