Consortium of Japanese, Turkish Companies Offers $15-20 bn for Turkmen Gas Project

A consortium of Japanese and Turkish companies is offering around $15-20 billion for an order to build natural gas processing facilities in Turkmenistan, Nikkei reported Monday.

The project envisages construction of facilities designed to remove such impurities as carbon dioxide and water from natural gas extracted from the Galkynysh field.

The project's cost is now estimated to go higher than originally projected due to the need for additional equipment, according to Alptekin Tizer, president of Renaissance Heavy Industries, a member of the consortium along with Japanese engineering companies JGC and Chiyoda.

The consortium and the Turkmenistan side have been negotiating on price, Nikkei reported. Tizer expressed hope that an agreement will be reached by summer.

JGC and other companies signed a memorandum of understanding to build these facilities when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Turkmenistan last October.