TASHKENT

Uzbekistan has launched its first gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant, worth $3.6 billion, that will help to reduce the Central Asian country’s reliance on imported oil products and even allow for exports of jet fuel.

UzGTL plant, operated by Uzbekistan’s state-owned Uzbekneftegaz company, will 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, Kidirbay Kaypnazarov, UzGTL’s Production Director, told the Tribune.

“We have started talks to get approval for our airplane fuel, including from Airbus, Boeing and engine maker Rolls-Royce,” Kaypnazarov said.

He said that the technological system of the plant will allow the company to start commercial production in the first quarter of 2022. “We expect to reach our normal production capacity by the end of 2022,” Kaypnazarov added.

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.

During the official launching ceremony, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that UzGTL’s products would replace $500 million worth of imports. Uzbekistan currently imports $1 billion worth of oil and gas products.

“We will create the country’s first largest gas-chemical cluster based on UzGTL and Shurtan GKM capabilities, which will allow us to produce, for example, a $10 worth product out of $1 worth of natural gas,” he said.

The government will invest $1.8 billion, using both domestic and international financing, to triple the production capacity of the Shurtan GKM.

Mirziyoyev, after the opening of the UzGTL plant, also laid a capsule to start construction of a new complex of the Shurtan GKM which would increase the capabilities of the complex to produce an additional 380,000 tonnes of polyethylene and polypropylene per year.

Chevron Philipps (USA), Lummus Technology (USA), Novelon Technology (Germany) and Enter Engineering (Singapore) are shown as licensees and contractors for the project in the government documents.