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FSUOGM COMMENTARY FSUOGM

Uzbekistan calls tender

for refinery overhaul

Uzbekistan wants to bring its stagnating refining industry up to modern standards

UZBEKISTAN UZBEKISTAN has launched a tender for an plants up to modern standards.
engineering, procurement and construction The work at 130,000 bpd Fergana will run
WHAT: (EPC) contractor to revamp its refinery in Fer- until 2023 and will involve the replacement of
Uzbekistan has opened gana, in a bid to bring the facility up to modern 30% of existing components and equipment.
a tender to revamp its standards. France’s Axens is set to provide technologies
refinery in Fergana. The tender will be open until November 12 for the new units, while the UK’s Wood was
and a winner will be declared on December 1, hired to undertake front-end engineering
WHY: Uzbekistan’s energy ministry said in a statement. design (FEED). Other companies attached to
The overhaul will cost Days earlier the government announced plans to the $300mn project include local firms UzLITI
$300mn, improving fuel sell the Fergana plant as part of a sweeping pri- Engineering, and UzGASHKLITI.
quality and quantity. vatisation drive. The Fergana refinery has been placed under
the trust management of Jizzakh Petroleum,
WHAT NEXT: Modernisation drive a joint venture between national oil company
Uzbekistan needs to Uzbekistan’s oil refining industry has been stag- (NOC) Uzbekneftegaz and an affiliate of Rus-
resolve logisticial issues nating for decades, with its two main refineries sia’s Gazprom. But the government wants to
obtaining oil. in Fergana and Bukhara both in poor condition privatise the facility along with over 620 other
and reliant on outdated technology. They have state-owned entities under a presidential decree
a combined nameplate throughput capacity of announced in late October. Corporate govern-
180,000 barrels per day (bpd) but in reality can ance will be improved and financial audits car-
only process a fraction of this amount. ried out to help attract investors.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who There are even larger modernisation plans at
assumed power in late 2016 after the death of his the Bukhara plant, where the government wants
predecessor Islam Karimov, has vowed to change to invest $600mn over the next five years. South
things, however. The government wants to invest Korea’s SK Engineering was selected in July to
$900mn in bringing the Fergana and Bukhara map out the project, while US firm Honeywell

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 44 04•November•2020