Tatneft and Chinese partners start building methionine plant costing 130 billion rubles
KAZAN. Aug 21 (Interfax) - Tatneft began building a methionine plant at a new site in the Green Valley special economic zone in Tatarstan on Friday, the Russian government said on its website.
The project is being implemented by Tatneft alongside Chinese partners, and investments should total around 130 billion rubles, most of which will be from concessional loans approved with support from the Russian government on a priority basis, the press release reads.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev, who took part in the construction launch ceremony, said that the methionine plant would be one of the major sites built as part of the Technological Support for Food Safety national project.
"The launch of new production capacities in the Republic of Tatarstan will allow our domestic methionine demand to be met fully [...] Moreover, the planned production volumes will allow us to fulfil our objective of expanding exports of high-value added products," Patrushev is quoted as saying in the statement.
The plant will produce DL-Methionine, an amino acid used as feed in livestock production and fishing. There are also plans to begin producing other amino acids at the Green Valley site. Patrushev said the government would continue to support similar projects which are important for the industry.
It was reported in August that Russia's state appraisals agency Glavgosexpertiza had approved plans for the first construction stage of a DL-Methionine production facility in the Green Valley special economic zone of Tatarstan's Nizhnekamsk district.
According to the environmental impact report, the first stage involves building units for extracting a component used in DL-Methionine production with an installed capacity of 95,000 tonnes per year. The report states 2027 as the start date for construction and estimates the duration of construction and installation work at 17 months.
The site should include units for producing methionine, the component for producing DL-Methionine, acrolein and MTPA, an intermediate in the production of methionine, as well as offsite facilities, the report says.
Biometionin LLC was registered in Nizhnekamsk in July 2025 and is owned on a parity basis by Tatneft and NTL Chemical Technologies LLC, which is controlled by China's Ningxia Herun Chemical Technology.
Tatarstan publication Business Online reported in the summer of 2025, citing Aidar Khismatullin, director of Tatneft subsidiary Biotekhagro LLC, that Tatneft planned to build a complex for advanced grain processing and methionine production in Tatarstan, processing 500,000 tonnes of grade 3 and 4 wheat and produce around 100,000 tonnes of DL-Methionine each year, as well as tryptophan, valine, isoleucine and xanthan gum. By-products include ammonium sulfate, gluten, pelleted and protein feed, amino acid residues and potassium sulfate.
