Kazakhstan Petrochemical Complex Moves Slowly but Surely

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries (KPI) (Almaty, Kazakhstan), which is owned by major holding company JSC SAT and Company (Almaty), is steadily continuing with plans to construct a chemical production complex in Karabatan, Kazakhstan. The facility is planned to produce 1 million metric tons per year of ethylene; 500,000 metric tons per year of propylene; 500,000 metric tons per year of polypropylene; 400,000 metric tons per year of low-density polyethylene; and a 400,000-metric-ton-per-year swing unit to produce high-density and linear low-density polyethylene.

Since its government-backed feasibility suggestion in 2007, companies such as LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, Netherlands) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Beijing, China) have been associated with this project as a technology licensor and an investor, respectively, only to have dropped out. But Foster Wheeler France S.A. (Paris, France) has worked continually with KPI in developing this project over the past two years. Foster Wheeler is serving as the project management consultant for the construction of the complex, which is estimated to cost more than $2 billion. Funding was recently approved, so another hurdle has been cleared.

KPI and Foster Wheeler are hoping to select the engineering, procurement and construction contractor before the end of the year. KPI is planning to begin construction before the end of 2011, and aims to complete the site and have production online by the second half of 2015.

In the past 20 years, Kazakhstan has emerged as one of the most successful former Soviet Union states. Not only is it the birthplace and current home of the Russian space program (leased through 2050), but it is a growing hub for industry, in particular petrochemicals, oil and gas, and metals and minerals, given its rich resources of chrome, coal, copper, gold and zinc deposits.

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