BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 22
By Ilkin Seyfaddini – Trend:
Production of gasoline decreased by 0.9 percent to 92.400 tons in Uzbekistan in March 2020 compared to March 2019, and of diesel fuel decreased by 40 percent to 58.500 tons, Trend reports citing the Uzbek State Statistics Committee.
According to the results of the first quarter of 2020, production of motor gasoline in Uzbekistan increased by 15.5 percent compared to the same period in 2019 to 282,700 tons, diesel fuel - decreased by 4.8 percent to 254,500 tons.
Currently, three large oil refineries including Bukhara, Ferghana and Altyarik with a total capacity of 11.1 million tons operate in Uzbekistan. However, due to the drop in oil production and obsolete equipment, the capacity of the enterprises is no more than 30 percent.
In December 2017, the construction of the Jizzakh Refinery, which cost $2.2 billion and has a capacity of processing of 5 million tons of oil, was started. Its construction was planned to be completed by 2021. However, in December 2018 the project was frozen, and Uzbekistan announced the revision of the concept to increase capacity through modernization of existing refineries.
In particular, it is planned to modernize Ferghana and Altyarik refineries worth $875 million by 2022 in three phases in partnership with American Honeywell UOP, French Axens and Danish Haldor Topsoe. Starting from 2020, it was planned to produce high-quality diesel fuel meeting the Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards.
The modernization of the Bukhara Refinery worth $533 million is also planned to be carried out in three stages in partnership with South Korean SK Engineering to be completed by 2025. After that, the refinery will be able to process 2.5 million tons of oil and gas condensate per year. The refinery's annual capacity will be processing 1.2 million tons of Euro-5 gasoline, 200,000 tons of aviation kerosene and 750,000 tons of diesel fuel.
In March 2020, Bukhara Refinery started production of high-quality Euro-4 and Euro-5 class diesel fuel, with an initial capacity of 100,000 tons per year. Installation and commissioning works were carried out with online support of specialists from the French Axens company.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
