TURKMENISTAN TO ADD JAPANESE-BUILT PLANT TO TURKMENBASHI COMPLEX.

A consortium of four leading Japanese companies–Itochu, Nissho Iwai, Marubeni and JGC Corp., the latter as project operator–has been awarded a contract worth US$ 414 million (56 billion yen) to build and equip a polypropylene production plant for Turkmenneftegas. Japanese companies will additionally supply water desalination equipment and storage and shipping installations. The plant will use intermediate products from liquefied gas to manufacture solid plastic materials and fibers. The contract is being financed mostly by loans from Japan’s Export-Import Bank and a consortium of four other Japanese banks, under an agreement with Turkmenistan’s Foreign Economic Affairs Bank. The plant forms part of a larger project to modernize and enlarge the Turkmenbashi oil and gas refining complex, with a view to exporting its virtually entire output (Dow Jones Newswires, October 5; Asia Pulse, October 6).–VS

ASTANA MODERNIZATION DESIGN APPROVED.