Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 19
By Huseyn Hasanov– Trend:
An international consortium has proposed to Turkmenistan an investment project for the construction of a plant for the production of methanol from natural gas, Trend reports referring to Business-Turkmenistan information publication.
The consortium includes European companies, such as Edison Technologies, MMEC Mannesmann, Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions, and the Chinese SINOPEC Engineering Group.
Edison Technologies CEO Edison Kasapoglu drew attention to the fact that methanol is widely used in the production of chemicals, plastics, plywood, paints, varnishes, cosmetics and liquid energy resources.
The main consumer markets are European countries and China. Presently, every year the world produces only 20 million tons of methanol. Earlier, Turkmenistan planned to launch the production of polyvinyl acetate and methanol in its Dashoguz region.
Turkmenistan aims at orienting the country's fuel and energy complex towards the production of high value-added products, and, in particular, preparation of other large gas-chemical investment projects. All these projects are planned to be implemented jointly with foreign partners. Proposals came from participants in an international tender, including companies from Italy, Japan and South Korea.
The second phase of the complex for the production of synthetic gasoline from natural gas on the basis of the recently commissioned plant in Ovadan-depe, with the annual capacity of 600,000 tons of RON-92 gasoline, is planned to be built in Ahal province.
The complex in Kiyanly settlement of Balkan province, where the design capacity is 386,000 tons of polyethylene and 81,000 tons of polypropylene, will also expand its production. Polyvinyl chloride, caustic soda, hydrochloric acid and liquid chlorine are planned to be produced in this settlement.
A project of construction of a methyl diethanolamine production unit is being developed in Kiyanly settlement. The products of nearby gas chemical complexes will be used as raw materials.
An enterprise producing rubber and polystyrene will be built in Lebap province. Polyvinyl acetate and methanol are planned to be produced in Dashoguz province.
Turkmenistan, according to a report by British Petroleum (BP), ranks fourth in terms of natural gas reserves in the world and currently sells it to China and Russia.