American WTL planning new projects at the Turkmenbashi oil refinery complex
ASHGABAT. April 6 (Interfax) - American company Westport Trading Europe Limited (WTL) is proposing a project for the production of needle coke, and with it, graphite electrodes, at the Turkmenbashi Complex of Oil Refineries (TCOR), the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reports.
Entrepreneurs from the United States are interested in implementing new projects at Turkmenistan's oil refineries, Nikolai Yurchenko, head of the WTL board, said according to the article.
"Basic engineering developments have already been discussed and agreed with TCOR specialists, and production based on the capacities available at the complex's facilities will take place as soon as possible," Yurchenko said.
Graphite is used in the nuclear, metallurgical, chemical and space industries. The number of suppliers on the market is limited. Because global output is declining, for Turkmenistan, it is a great new opportunity, the newspaper noted.
Yurchenko also said that WTL presented a project for the construction of a new distillation unit for a mixture of gas condensate and oil with a capacity of 1 million tonnes at the Seydi Oil Refinery (part of TCOR).
He also drew attention to the possibility of hydrogen production in Turkmenistan.
Earlier it was reported that Westport Trading Europe Limited in October 2019 had started construction on a delayed coking and tar deasphalting unit at TKOR.
The unit is designed for the annual production of 416,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, 191,000 tonnes of petroleum coke, 16,400 tonnes of liquefied gas and 148,000 tonnes of gasoline. It will help deepen oil refining capability at TCOR from 84% to 94%, which will increase the competitiveness of its petroleum products and increase their export volumes.
TCOR signed a contract with a consortium of Westport Trading Europe Limited and WTL (FZE) from the UAE, a member of its group, for the construction of the decoking and tar deasphalting units in November 2017. AT the time, Turkmen media reported that the value of the contract was about $140 million.