OREANDA-NEWS. Gazprom Neft has acquired 100% of the authorized capital of SYNTAZ OIL LLC, which owns Ryazan Petrochemical Experimental Plant JSC. Purchase of this asset will enable the company to become a leading producer of polymeric bitumen for road construction in Russia.

Ryazan Petrochemical Experimental Plant JSC is the largest producer of polymer-bitumen binders (PBB) in the country. The capacity of the plant is 60 thousand tonnes of PBB per year. The production in 2013 reached 25 thousand tonnes. The plant owns modern equipment and infrastructure necessary for production, storage and loading of high quality bitumen materials. The plant's own laboratory provides quality control of the products. The plant equipment allows packing in the high-tech packages and to load the trucks.

The Russian PBB market in 2013 was estimated at 170 thousand tons, which makes 3.5 increase compared to 2010. Now the largest consumer of PBB in Russia is the Central Federal District, implementing a range of major road-building projects.

“The Integration of the new enterprise will allow Gazprom Neft to become a leader in the Russian polymer bitumen market and to provide our customers with high-tech materials for building modern and high quality roads. We consider the production and sales of high-grade bitumen materials as one of the important potential growth area for the company. Experts estimate the market to exceed the capacity of 500 thousand tonnes by 2025. This is 3 times increase compared to current production,” - said Gazprom Neft Deputy CEO for Logistics, Refining, and Sales Anatoly Cherner.