Saint Petersburg, Russia, June 4, 2021. Jizzakh Petroleum JV LLC signed a four-sided Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Russia’s Gazprombank (Joint Stock Company), State Development Corporation VEB.RF, and the Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance (EXIAR) for the financing of the new greenfield gas chemical complex based on Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) technology to be built in the Bukhara region of Uzbekistan.
The MOU establishes a framework for potential future cooperation between the Parties with respect to the financing of the Project and the insurance of the risk related to the Facility in the amount of $800 million preliminarily.
Jizzakh was named a major investor in the project late last year. The $2.8-billion gas chemical plant, one of the largest and most complex in the CIS region, is regarded as key to the future monetization of Uzbekistan natural gas through the production of export-oriented high-value-added gas-chemical products.
Nigora Ibadova, Director for Strategic Development, Jizzakh Petroleum said:
“The MTO project, on which our team has been working for about two years, is a great example of the modern Uzbekistan, where great attention is paid to projects to create a value chain and the production of finished products, import substitution, which in turn gives a positive impetus for the development of future related industries and the creation of new workplaces. This project will become the core of the future gas chemical cluster, which will be assigned the status of a special economic zone, the first of its kind in Central Asia.”
She also noted the importance of ongoing support and cooperation with financial institutions such as GPB, VEB.RF and EXIAR, particularly because of the company’s plan to bring in a significant amount of equipment, materials and services for the project from Russia. The signing of this memorandum is therefore an important step forward in this process.
The signing ceremony was held on the occasion of the XXIV St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which over the last years has become a leading global platform for members of the business community to meet and discuss key economic issues facing Russia, emerging markets, and the world as a whole.
When completed, the state of the art 720,000 tonnes per year complex is expected to process 1.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually and produce high-quality polymers used in many sectors of the world economy.
