The Uzbekneftegaz intends to draw US$ 184 million in a loan from the U.S. The Export–Import Bank for the reconstruction of the Bukhara oil refinery, the company said.

Reportedly, experts of Uzbekneftegaz, UOP ltd and the U.S. EXIM Bank discussed online the financing of the Bukhara oil refinery reconstruction project.

EXIM Bank (USA) has sent a letter of intent (LOI) to finance this project worth $ 184 million, the company added. The talks ended in an agreement to provide the American bank with detailed information on the Bukhara refinery modernization project and a question form on project financing.

Earlier, Uzbekneftegaz announced that the Bukhara refinery in 2019-2025 will be modernized worth a total of over US$ 553 million. The three-stage project provides for reaching the design capacity of 2.5 million tons of oil and gas condensate and producing 1.2 million tons of Euro-5 gasoline, 200 thousand tons of jet fuel, 750 thousand tons of diesel fuel and 30 thousand tons of fuel oil annually.

The project was reportedly prepared by the South Korean SK Engineering and is financed by the Uzbek authorities and foreign direct investment. In July 2020, the Bukhara Refinery signed an agreement with Honeywell UOP for the provision of technical licenses for the production of Euro-5 fuel. An engineering agreement was also signed with the U.S. company for the development of a PDP-Process Design Package for the modernization of the refinery.