Uzbekistan taps Russian financiers for chem plans
The developers behind three chemical projects in Uzbekistan signed preliminary agreements on June 4 to obtain financing from Russian lenders.
Jizzakh Petroleum, a joint venture between Uzbekistan's Uzbekneftegaz and Russia's Gazprom, said it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Russian financiers Gazprombank, VEB.RF and the Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance for a methanol-to-olefins (MTO) plant in the Bukhara region. The MoU covers potential financing and insurance to the tune of $800mn.
The agreement was signed at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), where a flurry of other energy deals have been signed between Russian and international companies in the last few days.
The $2.8bn MTO project in the Bukhara region is expected to convert 1.5bn m3 of gas annually into 720,000 metric tons of polymers. US firms Chemtex, Scientific Design and Grace, China's Sinopec, Denmark's Haldor Topsoe and Versalis, owned by Italy's Eni, are providing the facility's technologies.
Consulting and technical partners, including IHS Markit, Nexant, and Amec Foster Wheeler (Wood), carried out marketing analysis and feasibility studies for the scheme, while White & Case is the project's legal advisor and the UK's Mott MacDonald its environmental and social impact assessment consultant. Jizzakh said in February that it was negotiating offtake deals with US-based Marco Polo International and Turkey's KTM Kimyevi Maddeler.
Uzbekistan is looking to build out its petrochemicals sector to convert its gas and other resources into higher-value products at home rather than simply exporting them to China and Russia.
Cyprus-registered Ferkensco Management Ltd also said on June 4 it had signed MoUs with Gazprombank, also at SPIEF, on financing for a plant to produce ammonia in Uzbekistan's Syrdarya region, and a chemical facility to turn out complex fertilisers in the Samarkand region.
Site surveys for the ammonia plant began in late 2020, and in March this year Ferkensco said it had reached a cooperation agreement for the project with regional authorities. Negotiations are underway with Swiss firm Casala on obtaining technology for the plant, it said. Once up and running, the $350mn plant will produce 495,000 mt of ammonia each year.
The chemicals facility will produce up to 900,000 mt of complex mineral fertilisers annually from phosphorite deposits in the Navoi region. It is expected to be operational in 2023.