TASHKENT

The U.S. Honeywell UOP and Uzbekistan’s gas-to-liquids plant UzGTL have signed a memorandum of cooperation to start production of alkylbenzenes, the Energy Ministry said.

The agreement was signed during World Expo in Dubai last year.

The production complex of linear alkylbenzenes with a capacity of up to 100,000 tonnes per year is planned to be built on the basis of the UzGTL plant, the raw material for the new product will be intermediate products produced during the production of GTL-kerosene.

“The signed memorandum provides for the expansion of cooperation between Uzbekistan GTL and Honeywell UOP in the joint development of technical, economic, licensing and other documents for the organization of new production,” the ministry said in a statement.

Linear alkylbenzene is the main raw material for the production of detergents – from liquid soap to washing powders. Currently, demand for detergents is growing and its market is one of the most dynamically developing in Uzbekistan, as well as in other countries of the region and beyond. About 50 percent of all synthetic detergents produced in the United States and western Europe are based on it.

Honeywell UOP is a leading international supplier and licensor of processing technologies, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment and consulting services for the refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries.

Uzbekistan launched its first GTL plant, worth $3.6 billion, late last year and the authorities said that it will help to reduce the Central Asian country’s reliance on imported oil products and even allow for exports of jet fuel.

UzGTL plant is operated by Uzbekistan’s state-owned Uzbekneftegaz company. It is set to use its large natural gas reserves to produce more synthetic liquid fuels such as kerosene and diesel, which it currently imports due to declining crude oil output and insufficient refinery capacity.

The plant, the fifth facility of its kind in the world, is capable of producing 307,000 tonnes of aviation kerosene, 724,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, 437,000 tonnes of naphtha, and 53,000 tonnes of liquefied gas annually. The total annual capacity of the plant is 1.5 million tonnes of liquid products for both domestic market and export. The plant can operate in five different modes and adaptively increase the output of those products for which more orders have been received.

The project was implemented within the framework of the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract, concluded on a turnkey basis with a consortium of companies, including South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering Co., Ltd., Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd and Singapore-based Enter Engineering Pte Ltd.

When brought to full capacity, the UzGTL plant will consume about 3.6 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas, produced at the Shurtan field and purified at a nearby Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex (Shurtan GKM), operated by Uzbekneftegaz.