GS Engineering and Construction Co. and its consortium signed an MOU on May 28 with Uzbekistan oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz. The $4.5 billion project will result in the construction of methanol and olefin plants in Uzbekistan. Vice Chairman Huh Myung-soo and Chairman Shokir Faizullaev signed for their respective companies at Cheong Wa Dae, while President Park Geun-hye and President Islam Karimov observed the proceedings following their summit at the Presidential Mansion on May 28. The Korean construction won the deal on an EPC basis, taking charge of the entire key segments of the project from design, purchase and construction, with the company holding half of the stake in the joint venture company that won the project.
President Park and her Uzbekistani counterpart Karimov issued a joint declaration at the end of their summit, agreeing to cooperate on the Central Asian country’s mammoth infrastructural projects for which $55 billion will be invested. The projects will be broken down to around 900 cases.
Korean companies will have an advantage in winning some of the projects based on the two Chief Executives’ agreement over heavy economic cooperation, including on finance. Altogether, they signed 12 agreements, including MOUs on cooperation in economics and in social areas such as medicine and manufacturing during their summit at Cheong Wa Dae. President Park asked President Karimov to favorably consider having Korean firms take on some of the key projects, including one for the construction of a power plant worth $1 billion, another power plant worth $700 million, and a solar plant worth $300 million. President Karimov told President Park that Uzbekistan government support would be provided to the Korean firms operating in his country so that they can undertake more projects. President Park also asked her counterpart for his support to provide the host government’s support to the various projects being undertaken by the Korean firms in Uzbekistan, including the Shurgir gas plant construction project worth $3.9 billion, the gas liquefaction plant construction project worth $3.1 billion, the Kantim gas field development project worth $2.7 billion and a power plant modernization project worth $170 million.
President Karimov said Korea has been a model for Uzbekistan in rapid economic development, competitive power, potential manpower and technological innovation, and he chose Korea as the first foreign country to visit following his reelection as leader of Uzbekistan in March for that reason.
Uzbekneftegaz plans to invest an estimated $18.65 billion in the development of the country's oil and gas industry.
"The investment will be placed under the state program on modernization, technical and technological renovation of the oil and gas industry," Shokir Faizullaev, chairman of Uzbekneftegas, said at the 19th Uzbekistan Oil and Gas three-day international conference, which started in Tashkent on May 12.
President Islam Karimov approved the state program, which lasts until 2020, he noted.
The program envisages the realization of 54 investment projects in the oil and gas industry in the next five years. In particular, 39 projects will be implemented through a funding scheme worth $7.1 billion.
The project also envisions the construction of a new plant of hydrocarbons pyrolysis under Uz-KorGasChemical. The plant with a capacity of 30,000 tons of benzene, 20,000 tons of toluene and 5,000 tons of xylene per year will require an investment of $300 million.
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