Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.29
By Leman Zeynalova Trend:
Turkmenistan’s gas exports are expected to fall for the fourth successive year in 2018, according to the report of Fitch Solutions Macro Research (a unit of Fitch Group).
The reason is that China remains one of the last importers of Turkmen gas and no alternative export routes are likely to materialize in the coming quarters, said the report obtained by Trend.
It is likely that the nature of exports will change as Turkmenistan seeks to diversify the range of its products, the launch of Garabogaz fertilizer plant being a good illustration of this trend, the company believes.
Turkmenistan launched $1.5 billion worth Garabogaz Karbamid nitrogen fertilizer plant on September 17. The plant, built by the consortium of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp, Turkey’s Gap Insaat and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is located near the Caspian coastal city of Garabogaz, Balkan Region.
The facility integrates an ammonia plant and a urea (carbamide) plant, with respective capacities of 2,000 tons a day (t/d) and 3,500 t/d and will be using natural gas as a feedstock.
The Garabogaz facility will process up to 1bcm of natural gas annually.
The project also involved the construction of a 50 MW natural gas-fired combined heat and power plant, as well as an access road to Bekdash port (from where the nitrogen fertilizers will be loaded onto ships and sent to other countries) and a new water treatment plant.
Most of the financing for the facility was provided by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, while state-owned Turkmenhimiya paid the remaining costs.
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