Uzbekistan plans to construct shale oil processing plant

He said that the feasibility study of the project was developed and the project will be approved and the company will start to develop field and construction of the plant by the end of 2013.

In the first stage (20114-2015), it is planned to construct a plant with the capacity of 2 million tonnes of shale oil a year and it will be increased up to 8 million tonnes of shale oil and production of 1 million tonnes of oil a year in the next stage (2015-2018).

In October 2012, Institute of Atomenergoproyekt completed development of pre-project on construction of oil processing plant at Sangruntau field. The project of shale oil processing plant envisages that eight firm heat medium facilities (UTT-3000) with the capacity of 8 million tonnes of oil shale a year.

The project with the cost of US$600 million will be financed due to own resources of Uzbekneftegaz, loan of the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan, as well as foreign loans, Energonews reported.

The perspective reserves of oil shales in Uzbekistan have been estimated at the volume of 47 billion tonnes.