ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Russian firm Ust-Luga, which is building a Baltic Sea port under the same name, is seeking to issue state-backed bonds worth 20 billion roubles ($685.6 million), a company official said on Thursday. The issue would fall under the government's scheme of infrastructure bonds' issuance for which it had set aside 75 billion roubles ($2.57 billion) in guarantees this year and another 100 billion roubles in 2010..
"The company would use the proceeds to construct the port," Tatyana Pauk from Ust-Luga told Reuters.
She said Ust-Luga plans to issue bonds with a maturity from seven to ten years and the issue will be organised by Russian banks VTB, KIT Finance and Troika Dialog.
The company did not specify the date of the placement, but said it had already sent preliminary application for guarantees to the Finance Ministry.
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexander Novak said earlier that steel producer Mechel, St Petersburg's airport of Pulkovo and Ust-Luga may become the first companies to issue infrastructure bonds.
The state will provide guarantees for such bonds on the condition that the issuer has found financing for at least 50 percent of the project's cost from alternative sources.
Ust-Luga, located near Russia's second largest city of St.Petersburg, will become one of the world's largest rail-based export terminals for oil products, able to handle almost one fifth of Russia's total petroleum products exports.
Russia also plans to expand its crude oil pipelines to the Baltic Sea and build a new crude terminal in Ust-Luga.
It will be able to carry 30 million tonnes of crude oil a year, or 6 percent of Russia's output last year. The route is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2012.
Ust-Luga port will also include coal, sulphur, container and other terminals. ($1=29.17 ROUBLE) (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; writing by Gleb Gorodyankin; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)