The government of Turkmenistan is transferring ownership and operation of two petrochemical plants currently belonging to Turkmengaz to fellow state-owned operator Türkmenhimiýa, or Turkmenchemistry.
The natural gas-to-gasoline (GTG) complex at Ovadan-Depe near Ashgabat, in Turkmenistan’s Akhal Province, and the Kiyanly gas chemical complex in the Turkmenbashi district of Balkan Province will be transferred to the jurisdiction of Türkmenhimiýa “in a short time” following finalization of necessary documents, Turkmen state media said on July 12.
Announced by Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on July 9, the decision to transfer the chemical plants was made to “establish the stable operation of these plants, as well as release [Turkmengaz] from solving problems that are not within its competence,” according to Berdimuhamedov.
Further details regarding the proposed transfer of ownership of the two chemical enterprises were not disclosed.
Initially commissioned in October 2018, the $3.4-billion Kiyanly gas chemical complex—the largest in the region—processes 5 billion cu m/year natural gas via a gas separation unit equipped with Toyo’s Coreflux technology and BASF SE’s Oase technology produce 386,000 tonnes/year (tpy) of polyethylene and 81,000 tpy of polypropylene, with up to 4.5 billion cu m/year of remaining marketable gas shipped via pipeline for commercial use (OGJ Online, Aug. 27, 2020).
Built by a consortium of Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Rönesans Endüstri Tesisleri Inşaat Sanaýi ve Ticaret AŞ and officially entered into operation in June 2019, Turkmengaz’s $1.7-billion Akhal GTG complex is designed to process 1.785 billion cu m/year of natural gas to produce 600,000 tpy of Euro 5-compliant A-93 gasoline as well as 115,000 tpy of liquefied gas and 12,000 tpy of diesel using Haldor Topsoe AS’s proprietary Topsoe Improved Gasoline Synthesis (Tigas) (OGJ Online, Jan. 14, 2020).
As recently as August 2020, Turkmengaz was in discussion with Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. on a proposed expansion of the Akhal GTG complex that would involve construction of a second GTG plant at the existing complex as part of an ongoing bilateral collaboration partnership between Turkmenistan and Japan in the petrochemicals sector (OGJ Online, Aug. 31, 2020). The current and future status of the proposed expansion, however, have yet to be revealed.
