The key facts
- Tekfen and partners have begun a technical and financial audit of the MTO project in Karakul; the audit is planned to be completed by the end of 2026
- The cost in the presentation is $3.6 billion, whereas the project was previously estimated at between $2.5 billion and almost $5 billion
- The president called MTO his personal initiative and said he would personally oversee its implementation
Investors have begun revising the project
Foreign investors have started collecting documentation to revise the project of the MTO gas chemical complex (Methanol-to-Olefin — deep processing of natural gas into polymer products) in the Karakul district of the Bukhara region. This was announced on November 3 at a meeting with the president by Levent Kafkasli, general director of the Turkish company Tekfen, reports Gazeta. According to him, the company's specialists are already discussing technical issues directly on site and have held talks with the Uzbek side.
“If there is no mutual benefit, the project has no future”
“We have now begun collecting the necessary documents to revise the MTO gas chemical complex project in Karakul and to analyze its feasibility study. After studying these documents, we will together with the Uzbek side approach international financial institutions to attract financing for the project,” the Uzbekistan 24 TV channel quoted Kafkasli as saying. After completing the work, the investors intend to present the results of the negotiations and proposals for implementing the project to the president again.
New parameters and participants
According to the presentation, the project will be implemented on an area of 236 hectares, and its cost is estimated at $3.6 billion. The slide lists three Turkish investors: Levent Kafkasli (Tekfen), Ahmet Razi Yalcin (deputy general director of OYAK) and Mehmet Ali Islamoglu (general director of Nakkaş Holding). The audit began in November: the technical and financial audit is planned to be completed by the end of the year, and the development of technological solutions by April 2027.
The president's position
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev recalled that the MTO complex is his personal initiative: “Therefore, I will personally oversee it and will create all the necessary conditions for its implementation in Karakul.” He urged the partners to speed up the preparatory work and added: “If there is no mutual benefit, the project has no future.” The investor's representative agreed with the president and promised to act in accordance with the set tasks.
The minister on preparatory work
The start of preparatory work on the MTO project worth more than $3 billion was also discussed by Minister of Investments, Industry and Trade Laziz Kudratov in an interview with Uzbekistan 24. According to him, after talks between the head of state and major Turkish companies, their specialists arrived in the Bukhara region. The project envisages producing olefins from natural gas for the subsequent production of polymers, including various types of plastics.
The project's long history and changing cost estimates
The project has been under development for several years: its operator was Gas Chemical Complex MTO Central Asia, owned by the Saneg group. In 2022, the Karakul free economic zone was created to implement it, and in March 2024 the president gave the start to construction. The cost estimate has changed repeatedly: in 2020 — $2.8 billion, in 2021 — $2.5 billion, in July 2022 — $4 billion, the company's website lists $3.1 billion, and at the start of construction it was reported that about $5 billion was planned to be raised. Now the presentation shows $3.6 billion. It was previously assumed that 1.3 billion cubic meters of gas would be processed annually and about 1.1 million tons of polymer products would be produced, 56% of which was planned to be sold on the domestic market. The license for the technology was provided by China's Sinopec, and the American Air Products was to build a methanol production unit.
