Foreign investors have begun collecting documents to revise a gas chemical complex project in Karakul district, Bukhara province, Levent Kafkasli, chief executive of Turkey’s Tekfen, told the president at a meeting on Nov. 3.

The methanol-to-olefin (MTO) complex is meant to convert natural gas into high-value polymer products. Kafkasli said specialists had discussed technical issues at the site and held talks with the Uzbek side.

“We have started collecting the documents needed to revise the project and analyze its feasibility study,” Kafkasli said, as quoted by Uzbekistan 24 television. “After studying them, together with the Uzbek side we will approach international financial institutions to raise financing.”

A presentation put the project at 236 hectares and $3.6 billion. An audit began in November, with the technical and financial audit due by year-end and technology solutions expected by April 2027. The investors plan to report back to the president.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev called the complex his personal initiative and said he would oversee it personally. He urged the partners to speed up preparatory work. “If there is no mutual benefit, the project has no future,” he said.

Uzbekistan’s Minister of Investments, Industry and Trade, Laziz Kudratov, said specialists from major Turkish companies had arrived in Bukhara province after the president’s talks with them.

The project has been in development for several years. Its operator, Gas Chemical Complex MTO Central Asia, belongs to Sanoat Energetika Guruhi (Saneg). The president launched construction in March 2024. The plant was to process 1.3 billion cubic meters of gas a year and produce about 1.1 million tonnes of polymers.

In June, the Economic Crimes Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office reported the alleged theft of 643.2 billion soums in budget funds in a separate project to expand the Shurtan gas chemical complex. Arkchemical, 60% owned by a Saneg structure, was among the companies in the investigation. Its head also leads the MTO operator, according to corporate registers.