Ha-ni Cho, Gounee Yang

Global Economic News

HYUNDAI Engineering has completed the construction of its gas-to-liquid (GTL) plant worth US$2.62 billion in Uzbekistan.

Officials from the Uzbekistan Government, including President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, Energy Minister Alisher Sultanov, and South Korean officials, including Hyundai Engineering CEO Kim Chang-hak, attended a completion ceremony Saturday.

GTL refers to a technology that chemically reacts natural gas to produce liquid petroleum products. It requires high-level technological capabilities because it produces high value-added petroleum products through the chemical reaction, beyond the simple purification of natural gas.

Unlike typical oil refinery products, fuels made through the GTL process are clean fuels that have very low air pollutants such as sulfur, aromaticity (BTX) and heavy metals.

Carbon dioxide emissions of the GTL process are also half compared with coal, and 70 percent compared with oil.

It is the world’s sixth GTL plant. The plant is expected to help resolve Uzbekistan’s chronic petrol shortage.