Uzbekistan has suspended the Jizzakh refinery project, the deputy director of Neftegazinvest Husniddin Turayev said.
"The concept of the Jizzakh refinery project has been reviewed, and it was decided, first of all, to focus on modernization of the existing plants - the Fergana and Bukhara refineries. The feasibility studies of these plants were ready back in 2013-2014. Nowadays, we have begun talks with potential licensors for modernization," he said.
Among them, according to Turaev, some South Korean companies, the American Honeywell and others.
“After reviewing their data, the concept of modernizing the refineries will be defined. We will try to achieve the products quality upgrade, for example, to the Euro 5 standard. Once this work is completed, we will consider the viability of the Jizzakh refinery project. We had been in talks for importing 5 million tons of oil for this plant. We have suspended those talks for the time being," he added.
Earlier it was planned that the Jizzakh refinery would annually produce more than 3.7 million tons of motor fuel, more than 700 thousand tons of aviation kerosene and 300 thousand tons of byproducts, with construction Gazprom’s subsidiary Enter Engineering Pte Ltd chosen as the general contractor.
The US$ 2.2 billion Jizzakh refinery project was scheduled to be commissioned in 2022.
