Neighbors
New Gas Chemical Complex in Uzbekistan
Late May, our neighbors in the Kungradsk district of Karakalpakstan launched the Ustyurt gas chemical complex based on the Surgil field. The Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the Prime Minister of South Korea Hwang Kyo An took part in the opening ceremony.
New gas chemical complex in Uzbekistan
Implementation of the project with a total value of $4 billion presents the possibility to process 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, and thereby produce 3.7 billion cubic meters of marketable gas, 387 thousand tons of polyethylene, 83 thousand tons of polypropylene, 102 thousand tons of pyrolysis distillate and other valuable products.
Total annual production capacity of the complex is 387 thousand tons of polyethylene, 83 thousand tons of polypropylene, as well as 102 thousand tons of pyrolysis distillate and 8 thousand tons of pyrolysis oil. The Ustyurt Gas Chemical Complex, the construction of which has begun in 2012, includes five factories: gas separation, ethylene, polyethylene, polypropylene and fuel supply as well as modern infrastructure objects. All of them are high-tech and are outfitted with the most advanced equipment. The raw materials base consists of Surgil, Berdakh West and East fields.
The pilot production process begun at the Ustyurt Gas Chemical Complex last year. Over 54.9 thousand tons of liquefied petroleum gas and 34 thousand tons of gas condensate were produced in 2015. Last year over 1.8 billion cubic meters of gas and ethane were sent to the gas mains, and the energy system of the joint-stock company Uzbekenergo got over 87.5 thousand megawatts of electricity. Currently, pyrolysis distillate is sent to Bukhara oil refinery to be processed for petrol. Polyethylene and polypropylene are exported to several countries of the world. Over 186 thousand tons of polyethylene and polypropylene with a total value of $150 million were exported to the countries of Central and Eastern Asia, the CIS and Europe to date. By 2020 year polyethylene production volume will increase 4.1 times.
At the moment about 85% of polymer products are exported to the countries of Central and Eastern Asia, the CIS and Europe. It is planned to increase the export performance of the plant up to 90% by the end of 2016.
The Ustyurt gas chemical complex project in Uzbekistan implements in practice the principles of the development of the petrochemical industry that are still only being discussed as promising in Russia and Kazakhstan. One of the basic ideas in the line of prospects for petrochemical products is the recognition of the "fat" gas and liquid hydrocarbons from the gas condensate fields as the major source of raw materials in the coming years. However, despite the variety of the major projects declared, the implementation of the idea finds limited use: there are almost no paired “gas processing plant - gas chemical complex” projects with a high degree of maturity. The problem probably lies in the large capital intensity of such projects and, more importantly, different vectors of interest of operating and petrochemical companies. In this sense, in terms of the structuring of the project and attracting investors for gas industry the experience of Uzbekistan building a"fat" gas-based petrochemical production is valuable.