Page 17 - FSUOGM Week 34

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Tengiz group signs deal to

design gas separator

KAZAKHSTAN TENGIZCHEVROIL (TCO), the Chevron-led UCC is yet to say how it intends to proceed
consortium developing the giant Tengiz oilfield with the PE project without Borealis. A final
The unit will separate in western Kazakhstan, has reached a prelim- investment decision (FID) had been expected
ethane from gas for inary deal on designs for a new gas separation this year, with first production anticipated in
use as petrochemical unit (GSU). 2025. UCC is wholly owned by Kazakhstan’s
feedstock. TCO signed an agreement outlining basic sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna.
terms for designing the facility with KLPE, a Kazakhstan has several petrochemical pro-
subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-run United jects in the pipeline, as it looks to extract more
Chemical Co. (UCC), national oil company value from its gas resources. But they have strug-
(NOC) KazMunayGas (KMG) said in a state- gled to make progress.
ment on August 20. This should pave the way for In 2017, China’s Tianjin Bohua Petrochemical
a front-end engineering design (FEED) study to struck a deal to invest $4bn in a plant in Aktobe
be undertaken. A pre-FEED study has already capable of producing 1.8mn tpy of methanol
been completed. and eventually 300,000 tpy each of PE and PP.
The GSU will handle up to 9.7bn cubic metres But there have been no updates on the project
per year of gas, separating out the ethane con- since then.
tained in it. It will be the first project of its kind In November last year, a ground-breaking
in Kazakhstan, providing ethane for use as feed- ceremony was held for the construction of a
stock at a polyethylene (PE) plant, according to 300,000 tpy methanol and 600,000 tpy olefin
KMG. plant in Aktau. The project is to be implemented
This PE plant was due to be developed jointly by a Singapore-based company called WestGas-
by UCC and Austrian partner Borealis, produc- Oil, but NewsBase understands that financing is
ing up to 1.25mn tonnes per year (tpy) of PE. But not yet in place.
Borealis announced in May it had pulled out of The global petrochemicals market is cur-
the multi-billion dollar venture, citing the impact rently reeling in oversupply, as a result of
of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. new capacity coming on stream and weak-
Borealis still plans to develop an adjacent er-than-expected growth in key markets
500,000 tpy polypropylene (PP) with UCC, over the past year, as well as the effects of the
however. COVID-19 crisis. ™

Week 34 26•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P17