In the next ten years, Aeon Corporation, by billionaire Roman Trotsenko, will invest 200 billion rubles in projects in the Arctic. About this businessman told Forbes at the Fifth International Arctic Forum in St. Petersburg.

In the Arctic, the structures of Roman Trotsenko invest in two large projects. First, Aeon Corporation is a co-investor in the construction of the Indiga port in the north of the Nenets Autonomous District. The idea to build a deep-water port here appeared in the early 1940s, when it was necessary to replace the attacked port in Murmansk. Five years ago, the possibility of Rosneft’s construction in Indiga of a port for transshipment of liquefied natural gas from the Pechora LNG project, in which Dmitry Bosov’s structures were a partner, was discussed. However, Pechora LNG did not receive permission to export gas. Now the resource base for the port in Indigo will be the coal deposits of Kuzbass.

“There is a shortage of deep-water ports in Russia,” explains Trotsenko’s interest in the project. “We had our own need for transshipment of 20 million tons of coal and we were looking for a place where coal would be transferred from ice-class vessels to ordinary ones.” The choice fell on Indiga. “This is the Czech Bay, southwest of the Barents Sea,” says Trotsenko. “The Gulf Stream ends here, and this is the last zone of warm waters and an ice-free bay where ships can enter without ice class.”

The cost of the entire port construction project, which will be able to handle 100 million tons of cargo per year, is estimated by Trotsenko at about $ 2 billion, “Aeon Corporation” is ready to invest in the project up to 30-35% of its own funds. Previously, in addition to the structures of Trotsenko, SUEK Andrey Melnichenko and Kuzbassrazrezugol, which is part of the UMMC, were called the potential investors of Indiga. It is also necessary to build the Sosnogorsk-Indiga railway; Trotsenko estimates its cost at about 300 billion rubles. So far, negotiations on the railway - including about whose forces it will be built - are being conducted at Russian Railways.

The first phase of the port, according to Trotsenko, will be designed for transshipment of 20 million tons of cargo and will cost approximately 32 billion rubles. "We have already carried out the first part of the design and exploration work," said the billionaire. A full set of project documentation will be released by the end of the year, he hopes, and from the summer of 2020 it will be possible to begin the construction season.

The second project on Taimyr is being implemented by the North Star company. It will build a cluster of coal concentrate production worth 35.6 billion rubles in the West of the Taimyr Peninsula. Here, the “Northern Star” owns a license for the Syradasayskoye coal deposit with 5.7 billion tons of resources. 120 km long branch and processing plant.