Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Uzbekistan will attract Russian funding for a number of large investment projects in the oil and gas sector.

Russian companies and financial institutions intend to participate in the construction of a plant for the production of synthetic fuel in Uzbekistan, podrobno.uz reported.

General Director of Russian Export Center JSC Peter Fradkov informed that his organization is conducting intensive negotiations on the construction project of GTL plant on the basis of purified methane produced by the Shurtan gas chemical complex.

"The participation of Russia in the construction of the Oltin yo'l GTL plant amounts to over $300 million. We provide insurance coverage and direct credit participation. Gazprombank is also interested in this project. Russian Cryogenmash PJSC acts as the contractor. This is a large international project involving the Korean and Chinese sides," Fradkov said.

The new plant is expected to annually process 3.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas and produce about 1.5 million tons of synthetic fuel that meets ‘Euro-5’ requirements. As many as 743,000 tons of them will fall for diesel fuel, 311,000 tons for aviation kerosene, 431,000 tons for naphtha and 21,000 tons for liquefied gas.

Synthetic naphtha, obtained at the new plant, will be sent to the Shurtan gas chemical complex located just a kilometer away. Here, polyethylene and polypropylene of modern brands will be produced from it.

The total cost of the plant construction project exceeds $3.6 billion. In addition, the Shurtan gas and chemical complex will be expanded and modernized for the processing of naphtha at a cost of over $400 million.

Previously, Uzbekistan, Gazprombank and the Russian Export Center signed a framework agreement on joint implementation of investment projects in the oil and gas, chemical, mining and metallurgical sectors of the country.

Gazprombank will finance the project to create a synthetic liquid fuel production based on the refined methane of Shurtan GCC and fund the export of the air separation units produced by Russian Cryogenmash PJSC.

In addition, the document provides for the financing the construction of a plant for the production of sheet metal with a capacity of up to 500,000 tons per year by Gazprombank and the organization of deliveries of excavator equipment for the needs of the mining industry of Uzbekistan in an amount not less than 44 units with a total value of at least $155 million in 2017-2021.

In 1991-2016, total investments in the oil and gas industry were $30.7 billion, including direct investments and loans worth more than $17 billion, according to Uzbekneftegaz.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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