Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 07 2020

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
Uzbekistan eyes end-2020 launch for GTL plant
UZBEKISTAN
At full capacity, the plant will process 3.6 bcm per year o fgas and produce 1.4mn tonnes of synthetic fuel.
UZBEKISTAN aims to nish work on its rst gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant by the end of 2020, the country’s energy ministry said on February 11, more than three years behind schedule.
Central Asia is seen as an attractive location for GTL technology, given its abundance of gas, di culties getting that gas to market and reliance on imports of gasoline, diesel and other fuels. But projects have had di culty getting o the ground, largely because of funding problems.
Uzbekistan’s national oil company (NOC) Uzbekneftegaz formed a partnership with Malaysia’s Petronas and South Africa’s Sasol a decade ago to develop a plant in the country’s south. Petronas later cut its stake in the venture from 33.3% to 11%, and Sasol gave up its share in the project but stayed on as a technology licensor.
Years went by with little sign of progress until late 2018, when Uzbekistan secured $2.3bn in funding for the project from a group of Uzbek, Russian and Asian nanciers, covering most of its $3.6bn cost.
At full capacity, the plant will annually process 3.6bn cubic metres of gas and produce 1.4mn tonnes of synthetic fuel, including 311,000 tonnes of jet fuel, 743,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, 431,000 tonnes of naphtha and 53,000 tonnes of
lique ed gas. e naphtha will be delivered to a nearby petrochemical plant.
Uzbekistan’s energy ministry described the GTL plant as “one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world”, noting that there were only three facilities with a similar capacity in opera- tion, located in Nigeria, Qatar and South Africa.
One key concern hanging over the project is whether Uzbekistan will be able to provide it with su cient gas supplies. While the country sends gas to China under long-term contracts, its domestic market is tight, with shortages some- times experienced when demand spikes. Part of the issue is Uzbekistan’s poorly maintained gas pipeline system, built in the Soviet era, which su ers from high transmission losses.
Uzbekistan is not the only Central Asian country that is developing GTL capacity. Neigh- bouring Turkmenistan nished its own plant in June last year, though it is only half the size, processing up to 1.785 bcm per year of gas. It has plans for a second, 3.7 bcm per year facility but funding is not yet in place.
Meanwhile in Kazakhstan, UK-based Com- pactGTL has been trying for several years to build a much smaller gas-to-diesel facility, with- out success. ™
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