Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 11
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
The possibility of industrial production of graphite from petroleum coke is being studied in Turkmenistan, Trend reports referring to the country's State Oil Concern Turkmennebit.
Production is expected to be set up on the basis of a metallurgical plant in Owadan Depe, Ahal province of Turkmenistan.
It was earlier reported that, according to the prepared technical and commercial proposal, joint ventures or joint-stock companies might be established with relevant ministries.
A test project in this field was conducted by specialists from a private local enterprise ULKE and the state-owned Turkmendemironumleri (Turkmen Steel Products).
Graphite and its derivatives are actively used in the oil and gas, nuclear, metallurgical, chemical and space industries.
In recent years, the main suppliers of such goods are China, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, the US, Germany, France, India, Brazil, the UK.
Turkmenistan plans to increase the capacity of the oil refining industry to 20 million tons of oil by 2020, to 22 million tons by 2025, to 30 million tons by 2030.
The country produces annually about 10 million tons of oil at the present stage, a significant part of which is processed at local enterprises.