New Delhi/Moscow: In a dramatic escalation that could rattle global fertilizer supplies and send shockwaves through European banking circles, Russian chemical major EuroChem has asked 16 top Italian banks including giants like Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, BNP Paribas Italy, and Monte dei Paschi to immediately freeze all payments to Italian engineering firm Tecnimont and its Russian arm MT Russiya LLC. The amount in question? A staggering Rs 20,270 crore (202.7 billion rubles), one of the largest commercial disputes between a Russian and a European company since the Ukraine war began.

At the heart of the battle is the EuroChem North-West-2 ammonia and urea mega-plant in Kingisepp, near St. Petersburg – project that was supposed to make Russia one of the world’s top exporters of nitrogen fertilizers, the lifeblood of Indian farmers who use millions of tonnes of urea every year.

In 2020, EuroChem awarded the Rs 15,000 crore contract to Milan-headquartered Tecnimont S.p.A. (part of Maire Group) on a fixed-price, fixed-deadline basis. The plant was to be ready by........

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