At a meeting on November 17, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev shed light on the implementation of major industrial projects in Surkhandarya region.
“It is the third time I am coming to Surkhandarya this year with major intentions and clear plans to make our people live well and to ease their burden,” spokesperson Sherzod Asadov quoted the head of state.
On Thursday, the president took a tour of four new large industrial projects worth $3.3 billion in Surkhandarya. In particular, considering a gas chemical complex (GCC) in Baisun worth nearly $3 billion expected to be launched in 2024, the following is expected:
- purification of five billion cubic meters of gas per year, production of natural gas and sulfur worth six trillion soums;
- additional export income for Surkhandarya averaging $120 million per year;
- expansion of geological exploration, discovery of gas reserves for another 100 billion cubic meters, achievement of full oil independence of the country in 2−3 years.
7,000 people are now working in the complex “25 years of Independence” (M-25). As directed by the president, cooperation will be established around the complex, providing at least 2,000 high-income jobs for residents of neighboring areas.
The territory accommodates a newly built power plant with 85 MW capacity. Not only does it produce electricity for the needs of the complex, but also for the entire population of Baisun, the report said.
Saneg Company has started development of an oil shale deposit in Baisun district of Surkhandarya region. The shale ore development project was presented to Shavkat Mirziyoyev during his visit to GCC on November 16. According to the results of geological exploration, the field’s reserves are estimated at 55 million tons of C1 category shale ore, the company claimed.
Azizbek Nazarov, Saneg’s deputy general director for strategic projects development, shared that the study of geological structure, depth of occurrence and area of shale distribution at the site continues. According to him, the field’s deposits may reach up to 400 million tons in the future.
For this purpose, the plans for the next few years include topographic surveys, electrical exploration, as well as drilling of exploration wells cumulatively worth more than $10 million.
The company wants to set up processing of shale ore to produce synthetic oil, gas and power generation. Four circulating fluidized bed technology (CFB-1500) units are scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2024. Each of them will be able to process up to 1.5 million tons of shale ore per year to produce 800,000 tons of oil, 300 million cubic meters of gas and 150 MW of electricity.
In the next five years, Saneg expects to increase the number of CFB-1500 units to 25. They will be able to process up to 37.5 million tons of raw materials annually.
As a reminder, oil supplies from Russia to Uzbekistan via Kazakhstan are planned to be increased up to 1 million tons. This is more than three times the volume of oil that was planned to be imported in 2023 (300 thousand tons).
At the beginning of 2023, the volume of gasoline imports to Uzbekistan increased several times. For the first four months, 335.2 million liters were supplied, which is almost twice as much as for the entire last year. The total value of imports amounted to $136.67 million, or $0.4 per liter. Almost the entire volume came from Russia.
