President Huh Soo-young of Lotte Chemical Co.

Lotte Chemical completed the construction of a gasfield chemical complex in Uzbekistan that is capable of turning out a number of key petrochemical products, including ethylene, propylene, in addition to natural gas. It is the first petrochemical complex to be built by a Korean firm in Central Asia.

President Huh Soo-young said at a media briefing on Oct. 15 held at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul that Lotte Chemical would be a leading global firm with the new petrochemical complex as a base and with other projects, both at home and overseas. 

“Based on our success in Uzbekistan, we will continue to expand our ongoing businesses at home and abroad to rise up as a global petrochemicals company,” said Lotte Chemical CEO Huh at the briefing.

Built with an investment of around 4.3 trillion won ($389 million) and Lotte Chem’s own technology, the Ustyurt Gas Chemical Complex stands as the biggest Korean-built petrochemical facility in Europe and Asia, according to Lotte Chemical. 

The complex — first envisioned after a strategic partnership sealed between Uzbekistan and South Korea in 2006 — was established by Uz-Kor Gas Chemical LLC, a 50:50 joint venture established between Uzbekistan and a South Korean consortium led by Lotte Chemical (24.5 percent), Korea Gas Corporation (22.5 percent) and GS E&R (3 percent).

Set to officially begin commercial operations in January next year, the complex is able to process some 3.58 million tons of liquefied natural gas extracted and transported from its gas fields to the complex, located 110 kilometers away.

The plant will produce some 260,000 tons of methane to be sold to Uzbekistan’s state-run oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz and process around 470,000 tons of ethane-based feedstock polymers including high-density polyethylene and polypropylene. 

“From extracting liquefied natural gas in the upstream, to cracking and processing LNG into petrochemical products — methane gas, HDPE and PP — in the downstream, we have successfully built up a vertical integration system,” Huh said.

The construction got underway in 2012 and is scheduled to start go online in January next year with some $3.89 billion invested in the giant project.

In particular, Lotte Chemical took care of the construction of high-density poly ethylene and poly propylene production plants. President Huh said the company for the first time exported its technologies for the construction of the petrochemical plant.

The project was also the first vertical integrated plant system from the exploration of natural gas, the separation of gas and transportation, ethylene cracking, and petrochemical products production.

The complex has the capacity to turn out 390,000 tons of HDPE, and 80,000 tons of PP annually, an advanced base for Lotte Chemical to sell its products to Europe and Africa.

In particular, the complex has a gas field some 4.5 billion cubic meters wide, which can have raw materials supplied from the gas field.

Lotte Chemical also has been pushing a project to build an ethylene plant in Louisiana, the U.S., in a joint venture with Axiol of the United States with Lotte holding 90 percent at a total estimated investment of $2.8 billion. It is slated for completion in 2018 and will have the capacity to produce 900,000 tons of ethylene annually. The company projects it will earn $1.5 billion annually from the sale of ethylene.

A view of the Lotte Chemical's Gasfield Chemical Complex recently completed in Uzbekistan (Photos:Lotte Chemical)