Construction and assembly work has been completed at the plant for producing gasoline from natural gas in the Ahal region of Turkmenistan, which is ready for tests, State News Agency of Turkmenistan reported.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov made a working trip to Ahal region yesterday. He was given an overview of the progress by deputy prime minister Myratgeldi Meredov.
The plant's construction project is being implemented by a consortium of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. (Japan) and Ronesans Endustri Tesisleri Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. (Turkey) Companies. The agreement was concluded during Berdymukhamedov's official visit to Japan in September 2013. The plant's groundbreaking ceremony took place in August 2014, Interfax reported.
The total cost of the project is almost $1.7 billion. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) participates in the project's financing. With the commissioning of the plant scheduled for 2019, about 800 jobs will be created additionally.
The plant is designed to annually produce 600,000 tons of A-92 gasoline, which meets Euro 5 standards. It is also planned to produce 12,000 tons of diesel fuel and 115,000 tons of liquefied gas per year.
Head of the 'Caspian Barrel' Center for Oil Research Ilham Shaban told Vestnik Kavkaza that the introduction of Gas-to-Gasoline technology is one of the leading global trends in modern gas and petrochemical industry. "Basically, this is the lot of gas-rich countries with little oil - they are able to diversify their economies, producing petroleum products from gas, including motor fuel. It is clear that only a producing country with large reserves and developed gas industry can effectively develop such production. For countries such as Iran, Turkmenistan, Russia, it is very profitable to produce fuel from gas. For Azerbaijan it is also a very promising direction," he said.
"The fact that Turkmenistan has mastered this technology can only be welcomed. Turkmenistan ranks fourth in the world for natural gas reserves, its gas resources will grow, while it produces only about 10 million tons of oil per year. Due to this, Ashgabat decided to diversify its economy and sell expensive petroleum products produced from natural gas, instead of cheap raw materials. In addition to export, the same synthetic gasoline will be used as fuel in the domestic market," Ilham Shaban added.
