Interfax reported that Uzbek oil and gas holding Uzbekneftegaz and South Africa's Sasol Synfuels International Ltd and Malaysia Petronas International Corporation Ltd Monday signed an investment and design agreement for a gas to liquids plant at the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex in Uzbekistan Kashkadarya region.

The agreement now enables the Feed-2 stage of the project to commence. The first basic engineering phase has been completed and a pre-feasibility study drafted. It is thought at this stage that the new facility will be completed in 2017.

Uzbekneftegaz, Petronas and Sasol signed the founding documents for the Uzbekistan GTL synthetic liquid fuel joint venture in November 2009. The joint venture would be owned on equal terms and have initial equity of USD 30 million. However Petronas this year decided to reduce its stake in the joint venture from 33.3% to 11% and Uzbekneftegaz and Sasol now own 44.5% each.

The pre-feasibility study put project costs at USD 2.739 billion. The plant will use stripped methane from the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex as feedstock and use gas to liquid technology to refine up to 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, producing 672,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, 278,000 tonnes of aviation kerosene, 361,000 tonnes of naphtha and 63,000 tonnes of liquefied gas.

(Sourced from Interfax)