Turkmenistan to expand capacity of Kiyanly petrochemical complex

State-owned TurkmenGaz is expanding production capacity at the operator’s Kiyanly gas chemical complex in the Turkmenbashi district of Balkan Province in western Turkmenistan.

Per a resolution signed by Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedov earlier this month, the operator will build a grassroots unit for production of isobutane at the Kiyanly complex, Turkmengaz said in an official government release late on May 12.

Obtained from a feedstock of natural gas, the proposed unit will produce high-octane isobutane that can be used by oil refineries as fuel-blending component, as well as a refrigerant to reduce energy consumption in modern refrigerators, according to the operator.

The isobutane recovered from the new unit also can be used as a filler in aerosol cans, gas lighters, and gas-lighter refills, the government of Turkmenistan said in a separate official release on May 10.

While neither Turkmengaz nor the Turkmen government revealed details regarding the proposed capacity or timeline for startup of the new unit, both parties said the unit will contribute to further maximizing the complex’s range of production of high-value products from a hydrocarbon feedstock.

The complex’s production of isobutane will contribute to helping Turkmenistan fulfill its national obligation—as part of the country’s broader project jointly implemented with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization—under the Montreal Protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, which aims to safeguard the ozone layer by reducing use of ozone-depleting chemicals in favor of more environmentally friendly substances, Turkmengaz and the Turkmen government said.

Kiyanly complex overview

Initially commissioned in October 2018, the $3.4-billion Kiyanly gas chemical complex—the largest in the region—processes 5 billion cu m/year natural gas via a gas separation unit equipped with Toyo Engineering Corp.’s Coreflux technology and BASF SE’s Oase technology to produce 386,000 tonnes/year (tpy) of polyethylene and 81,000 tpy of polypropylene, with up to 4.5 billion cu m/year of remaining marketable gas shipped via pipeline for commercial use (OGJ Online, Aug. 27, 2020).

In July 2021, the government of Turkmenistan said the Kiyanly complex would be one of two petrochemical complexes it was transferring ownership and operation of from Turkmengaz to fellow state-owned operator Türkmenhimiýa, or Turkmenchemistry (OGJ Online, July 13, 2021). Scheduled to occur at the time of the announcement “in a short time” following finalization of necessary documents, confirmation of that transfer, to date, has yet to officially surface.