Kexim to Finance Gas Project in Uzbekistan

Export Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) announced Monday it will provide a loan of $1 billion to South Korean companies involved in the Surgil gas field development in Uzbekistan.

A report in Dow Jones said that eight Korean companies including Korea Gas and Honam Petrochemical are currently participating in the Uzbekistan Surgil gas field development and plant construction project. The project cost is $4 billion.

Recently, Korea Gas Corp announced that it decided to buy a $323.04 million stake in a Malaysian registered company, Kor-Uz Gas Chemical Investment Ltd, to participate in a project in Surgil, Uzbekistan.

As per estimates, the complex will annually process 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas, and produce 400,000 polyethylene and 100,000 tonnes of polypropylene, as well as 100,000 tonnes of pyrolized petroleum.

The resource base of the project is Surgil, Vostochniy Berdah-Uchsay and Severniy Berdah fields. Surgil field is the largest of them. Its reserves, according to the Uzbek side, make up about 120 billion cubic meters of gas.