Turkmenistan has let contracts to a consortium led by South Korean firms Hyundai Engineering Co. Ltd. and LG International Corp. for work related to the modernization of the country’s Turkmenbashi refinery complex, as well as construction of a grassroots gas-to-liquids plant to be built near the capital city of Ashgabat.
Signed during a state visit to South Korea by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Turkmenistan’s president, the framework agreements for the projects have a combined value of about $4.8 billion, LG said.
As part of the $940-million refinery modernization project, the consortium will design and build installations for the removal of sulfur from gasoline and diesel produced at the complex, LG said.
The new sulfur-removal units will use hydrogen sourced from the refining complex’s existing delayed coking and catalytic cracking units, the Turkmen government said.
Valued at $3.89 billion, the contract with state-owned TurkmenGaz for the proposed GTL plant covers engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning of the plant, which will be able to process 3.8 billion cu m/year of natural gas to produce motor fuels, said LG and the Turkmen government.
Construction on the refinery modernization project will take 42 months, while the GTL plant is scheduled to be completed within 63 months, LG said.
The company did not specify when construction activities would begin for either of the projects.
These latest contracts follow increasing efforts between Turkmenistan and South Korea to strengthen economic, political, and cultural ties, according to the office of Park Guen-hye, South Korea’s president.
Most recently, TurkmenGaz let a contract to a consortium that includes LG and Hyundai for the construction of a gas chemical complex in the Turkmenbashi district of Balkan Province in western Turkmenistan (OGJ Online, May 12, 2014).
The complex—which will use gas sourced from shelf of the Caspian Sea to produce 400,000 tonnes/year of ethylene, high-density polyethylene, and 80,000 tpy of polypropylene—is scheduled to be completed in 2018.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].