Jizzakh Petroleum, an oil and gas company focused on developing Uzbekistan’s energy sector, has announced significant progress in the construction of a new gas-to-chemicals complex based on methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology. 

The MTO project is said to have no comparison in the CIS region based on its planned scale and technical capabilities. 

When completed, the new state-of-the-art complex is expected to process 1.5bcm of natural gas per annum and manufacture more than 700,000 tonnes/yr of high-quality polymers. 

Successful completion of the project will further diversify Uzbekistan’s economy, developing its domestic textile, chemical and parapharmaceutical industries. It will also reduce Uzbekistan’s demand for imports.  

Since the beginning of this year, Jizzakh Petroleum has inked six technology licence agreements with leading international companies, namely Chemtex (Invista) (USA),  Scientific Design (USA), Versalis (Italy), Haldor Topsoe (Denmark), Grace (USA), Sinopec (China)

These milestones follow the September 2020 announcement on site selection and the completion of marketing and feasibility studies by consulting and technical partners IHS Markit, Nexant, and Wood. 

Other milestones include: 

• Jizzakh Petroleum has engaged White & Case as the project’s legal advisor and Mott MacDonald as Environmental and Social Impact Assessment consultant; 
• An agreement has been signed with Woodon FEED 
• Formal letters of intent have been received from SACE (ECA of Italy) and Bank Intesa Sanpaolo (Italy) for financing FEED; 

Negotiations have taken place with Marco Polo International (USA) and KTM Kimyevi Maddeler (Turkey) for the offtake of polymer products 

Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan Alisher Sultanov said: “The Government of Uzbekistan welcomes the progress that has been achieved in relation to this Bukhara complex. We view this project as a model for future interaction between Uzbekistan business and international partners. This partnership is the key to the accelerated development program being implemented by our government, in particular, the Ministry of Energy. Having completed site selection just last year, we are delighted that discussions with Jizzakh Petroleum have so quickly led to this series of agreements with major international licensors.”