Denmark’s Haldor Topsoe will construct a gas chemical plant in Turkmenistan for the production of ammonia and methanol.
The company and Turkmenistan’s government agreed on the main terms of the project and signed a memorandum of understanding. The next step will be drafting the project’s feasibility study. The main parameters of the project as well as the amount of required investment have not been disclosed yet.
“It is expected that the construction of a new plant for industrial processing of “blue” fuel will not only strengthen the import-substituting potential of Turkmenistan’s economy, but also significantly increase the volume of gas chemical products supplied abroad,” Deputy Prime Minister Shahym Abdrahmanov told the government meeting.
In 2019, Haldor Topsoe launched the world’s only natural gas-to-gasoline plant close to Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. At full capacity, the plant is set to produce 15,500 barrels of gasoline per day.
The plant became an important step forward in Turkmenistan’s plan to monetize the country’s huge natural gas resource – the fourth-largest in the world – and diversify its export potential. In addition, the production supplies the Turkmen home market with synthetic gasoline that complies with the highest environmental standards, contains no sulfur and has a minimum quantity of unwanted byproducts.
The main market for Turkmenistan’s gas is China, although the former Soviet republic also sells limited volumes to Russia and is working on a pipeline that would ship its gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
China imported 20.7 million tonnes or about 29 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Turkmen gas in 2020.
Last month, China’s state energy firm CNPC agreed with Turkmenistan to receive up to 51 bcm of gas in exchange for helping the country boost output at its giant Galkynysh field, Reuters reported.
CNPC plans to set up three new wells at the field, each producing about 3 million cubic metres a day, over the next 30 months. In exchange, it will receive 17 bcm of gas a year for three years.