Uzbekistan plans to complete GTL plant in 2017
TASHKENT. Aug 8 (Interfax) - The construction of a plant that will produce synthetic GTL (gas to liquid) fuels at the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex in Uzbekistan's Kashkadarin region is slated for completion in 2017, a source in Uzbekneftegaz management has told Interfax.
The plan originally was to build the GTL plant in 2009-2015. Technical reasons are behind the timeframe change, the source said.
At present, the design of the basic project is at Feed-2 stage, at which costs will be determined, the source said.
As reported earlier, Malaysia's Petronas plans to reduce its stake in the Uzbekistan GTL gas-to-liquids joint venture from 33.3% to 11%.
A source in the joint venture's management told Interfax that the company had notified all other joint venture shareholders of the decision.
The other two participants, which are Uzbek oil and gas holding Uzbekneftegaz and South Africa's Sasol Synfuels International (Pty) Ltd. (Sasol), have not yet decided on their own actions in light of the decision, and it cannot be ruled out that some or all of the Petronas stake will be distributed between them.
Uzbekneftegaz, Petronas and Sasol signed the founding documents for the Uzbekistan GTL synthetic liquid fuel joint venture in November 2009. The joint venture would be owned on equal terms and have initial equity of $30 million. A pre-feasibility study put project costs at $2.739 billion. The project would be financed by the companies themselves and up to $1.899 billion in loans on project financing terms from a consortium of banks and financial institutions.
The plant will use stripped methane from the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex as feedstock and use gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology to refine up to 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, producing 672,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, 278,000 tonnes of aviation kerosene, 361,000 tonnes of naphtha and 63,000 tonnes of liquefied gas.
Sasol licensed the technology for GTL production (Sasol SPDTM process). France's Technip is performing a feasibility study.
Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex was launched in 2001. Its technical capacity is reckoned at 125,000 tonnes of 150 kinds of high, medium, and low-line pressure polyethylene per year. The enterprise also produces 137,000 annual tonnes of liquefied gas, 130,000 tonnes of light condensate, 4.2 billion cubic meters of commodity gas, and 4,000 tonnes of sulphur.