Page 10 - bne Magazine August 2022

10 I Companies & Markets bne August 2022
The first synthetic diesel was produced at the newly built Uzbekistan GTL gas-to-liquids plant on July 1. / Clare Nuttall
and right next to the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex. The plant is equipped with modern gas and petrochemical technologies from companies including South Africa’s Sasol, Denmark’s Haldor Topsoe and US Chevron. It was built by a consortium including Korean companies Hyundai Engineering and Hyundai Engineering & Construction, and Uzbekistan’s Enter Engineering.
After it was put into operation, in the first half of this year the plant has been gradually building up stocks of semi-finished products. It launched production of hydrogen back in February, to be used in the manufacture of synthetic oil and fuel. On June 19, UzGTL said the plant produced its first synthetic oil, which was stored for further refinement and processing into the end products of diesel fuel, aviation fuel, kerosene, naphtha and LPG.
Shokhrukh Kholmatov, head of the consolidated information and analytical department at Uzbekistan GTL, who took journalists on a tour of the plant on June 25, explained:
“We are now in the commissioning phase where we have begun the production of synthetic oil. We are accumulating synthetic oil in the tanks, and when it reaches the sufficient level we will begin the production of the finished products – kerosene, diesel, naphtha and LPG.”
Then on July 1, production of the first synthetic diesel products started, with the initial batch shipped from the plant three days later. On July 5, synthetic diesel was sold for the first time on the Uzbek Republican Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange.
As previously reported, when the plant is fully operational, it will have the capacity to produce 1.5mn tonnes per year of finished liquid fuel products, including 307,000 tpy of jet fuel, 724,000 tpy of diesel fuel, 437,000 tpy of naphtha and 53,000 tpy of liquefied gas.
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There are also expected to be environmental benefits; during a visit to the plant researchers demonstrated the cleaner burn from its synthetic oil compared to traditional oil.
The energy ministry has said that GTL fuels will produce 40% less atmospheric emissions compared to usual emissions from comparative fuels. Annual emissions would thus be reduced by 13,500 tonnes.
Export taps switched off
Until recently Uzbekistan, one of the top three gas producers in the former Soviet Union, exported gas to Russia, China and some of its Central Asian neighbours. However, earlier this year Uzbekistan suspended exporting the fuel this year amid a surge in local consumption, and aims to end gas exports altogether by 2025.
Domestic gas consumption is expected to amount to 47.2bn cubic metres this year, according to government estimates. Moreover, given Uzbekistan’s fast-growing population, demand for car fuels, plastics and other products is rapidly increasing. This prompted efforts to develop deep gas processing within the country as an alternative to exporting gas as a raw material then re-importing finished products.
This has been most obvious over the last couple of decades
in the struggles by Uzbek drivers to find petrol or diesel for their cars. In recent years cars have been switched en masse to run off compressed natural gas (CNG) instead, with filling stations advertising ‘metan’ (compressed gas), which is now used by almost two-thirds of cars. While motorists initially converted their own cars, local automakers now produce cars designed to run on the fuel.
Now UzGTL will be converting natural gas into liquid fuels and products, with import substitution potential estimated at over $1bn annually.
“Our main goals are to: expand Uzbekistan’s capacity for the deep processing of domestic natural gas; significantly
“Our main goals are to: expand Uzbekistan’s capacity for the deep processing of domestic natural gas; significantly decrease imports of hydrocarbons; satisfy local demand for high-quality and environmentally friendly fuel; and provide the market with strategic value-added products made from our own raw materials”