MASSIVE FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN TURKMENISTAN’S OIL- AND GAS-PROCESSING SECTOR.

Turkmen president Saparmurad Niazov and chief executives of a Japanese consortium led by the Itohu company signed an agreement yesterday worth $400 million to build a polypropylene production complex in the city of Turkmenbashi on the Caspian Sea. The Japanese government is fully financing the project on credit. Niazov stated that the project represents one link in a series of measures to modernize and expand Turkmenistan’s oil- and gas-processing industry. Other projects underway, mostly in Turkmenbashi, are: a catalytic cracking plant being built by the French company Technip and the National Iranian Oil Company at a cost of $175 million; a purification and catalytic reforming plant being assembled by Japan’s Chiodo and Nichimen companies at a cost of $125 million; and a lubricating oils production complex under construction by Germany’s Mannesmann company at a cost of $165 million. (Petroleum Information Agency, February 18)

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