Overview
There are two oil refineries in Turkmenistan, Turkmenbashy and Seydi. The Turkmenbashy oil refinery has a refining capacity of more than 10 million tons of oil per year. The refinery produces a range of products, including unleaded gasoline, petroleum coke, road bitumen, laundry detergent, hydro-treated diesel, and lube oil. The government has demonstrated interest in attracting foreign investment to build factories producing end-user petroleum-based products such as detergents and tires.
The refinery reported that its products are exported to Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Japan.
Turkmenistan has invested USD 900 million in a number of projects designed to help increase the country’s refining capacity by 95 percent by 2030. The projects include the construction of a facility for coking (carbonization) and tar de-asphalting with annual capacity of 900,000 and 500,000 tons, respectively. The government also constructed a facility to produce bitumen with an annual capacity of 38,000 tons as well as a facility to produce polypropylene film and an oil refinery with a capacity of 3 billion tons per year. Turkmenistan has commissioned a feasibility study regarding the construction of a new oil refinery in its Balkan province.
The GoTM wants to diversify and create natural gas refining facilities to produce polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, methanol, formaldehyde, resins, synthetic rubber, and paint materials.
The GoTM has plans to build additional GTL plants in the coming years.
Table: Refining (No statistics or estimates available):
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
Total Local Production | * | * | * | * | * |
Total Exports | * | * | * | * | * |
Total Imports | * | * | * | * | * |
Imports from the US
| * | * | * | * | * |
Total Market Size | * | * | * | * | * |
Exchange Rates | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
(total market size = (total local production + imports) - exports)
Leading Sub-sectors
Various modern oil and gas processing units; gas-to-liquid fuel equipment; oil and oil products storage reservoirs.
Opportunities
- Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) - Ovadandepe GTL (2019) was built with Haldor Topsoe (Denmark), Kawasaki (Japan), and Rönesans (Turkey) — proving Turkmenistan partners with international firms for advanced GTL. Considering that Government of Turkmenistan wants a second GTL plant (~600,000 t/year gasoline equivalent), global expertise is essential in design, catalysts, plant integration, and environmental compliance. Opportunity areas for foreign firms are in technology licensing (Fischer-Tropsch, TIGAS-type processes), engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) contracts, long-term fuel offtake agreements.
- Petrochemicals & Polymers - the Kiyanly Complex (2018, $3.4B) was built by Hyundai Engineering, LG International, and TOYO Engineering — foreign-led EPC and financing. Petrochemicals are a strategic priority for export diversification beyond raw hydrocarbons. The government targets new products: PVC, methanol, rubber, resins, paint materials. Opportunity areas for foreign firms are in technology partnerships for polymer and specialty chemical production, joint ventures for export-oriented complexes, supply of modular petrochemical units.
- Crude Oil Refining Modernization - Turkmenbashy Refinery (TCOR) and Seydi Refinery are being upgraded with coking, de-asphalting, hydrocracking, and hydrogen production units. Considering that Government plans to nearly double refining capacity by 2030 (new refinery in Okarem with 3–5 million t/year) foreign input is necessary. Opportunity areas are in the EPC and equipment supply for cracking, hydrotreating, hydrogen plants, software/process optimization, environmental & safety technologies (sulfur reduction, Euro-5/6 fuel compliance).
- Specialty Chemicals & Bitumen - Expansion into polypropylene films, detergents, lubricants, bitumen. Opportunity areas are modular chemical plants, technical licensing for specialty materials, export logistics and marketing support.
LPG Recovery & Exports - Annual LPG output ~300,000 tonnes, with exports to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and South Asia with a potential to expand recovery units at refineries. Opportunity areas are in small-scale LPG recovery tech, storage and transport solutions, distribution partnerships in regional markets.
Web Resources
• NEBIT-GAZ (http://www.oilgas.gov.tm/)