Gary Sands
BISHKEK (TCA) — As China has built strong economic ties and growing influence in Central Asia, another East Asian economic giant — South Korea — is taking steps to increase its economic presence and trade in the resource-rich region. We are republishing this article on the issue by Gary Sands*, originally published by EurasiaNet.org:
TCA
KABUL (TCA) — Moscow will host the International Contact Group’s meeting on October 11, where representative from more than 50 countries and international organizations will discuss the Afghanistan peace process and peace talks with the Taliban, Russia’s foreign ministry has said.
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ASHGABAT (TCA) — A large gas chemical plant for production of gasoline from natural gas is under construction in Ovadandepe in Turkmenistan, at the 32nd kilometer of Ashgabat–Dashoguz motor road, the Golden Age Newspaper reported.
According to the state gas concern Turkmengaz, the processing of natural gas into gasoline will be carried out at this unique high-technology facility for the first time in the world practice. This GTG (gas to gasoline) project, based on the technology of Danish company Haldor Topsoe, will allow processing of 1 billion 785 million cubic meters of natural gas and produce 600 thousand tons of A-92 gasoline meeting the requirements of Euro-5 standard. Synthetic fuel will not have neither sulfur nor nitrogen organic components that affect the environment.
The consortium of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (Japan) and Rönesans Endüstri Tesisleri Inşaat Sanaýi ve Tiçaret Anonim Şirketi (Turkey), which have a contract with Turkmengaz for the construction of the plant, has committed to start the production at the end of 2018.
The plant has received the reactors from the license holder, Haldor Topsоe, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. Large compressors were supplied by Mitsubishi, program software by Yokogawa, diesel power packs from German heavy engineering company MAN, and pumping equipment was delivered by American, Korean and French manufacturers. The latest equipment from Holland, Korea, India, Great Britain, and Sweden is installed at the plant.
More than 700 foreign specialists and 4,700 workers and engineers from different regions of Turkmenistan are working on the construction site.
Commissioning of the plant is planned in December 2018.
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TASHKENT (TCA) — Tourism is an important sector of Uzbekistan’s economy and it needs to be improved with the effective use of existing opportunities, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said at a Government meeting on tourism development, the Jahon information agency reported on October 5.
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ASTANA (TCA) — Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Gazprom Management Committee, Huang Weihe, Vice President of PetroChina (on behalf of China’s state-owned oil and gas company CNPC), and Daniyar Berlibayev, Executive Vice President for Transportation, Processing and Marketing of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas company KazMunayGas, on October 5 signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the 7th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.
TCA
ASTANA (TCA) — JSC KazTransGas, Kazakhstan’s national gas transportation company, and PetroChina International Company Limited have signed a sales agreement on the supply of 5 billion cubic meters of Kazakh natural gas to China during one calendar year. The expected export revenue of KazTransGas should be about US $1 billion, the Kazakh company said.
