State-owned Uzbekneftegaz co- owns the Ustyurt chemical plant with South Korea’s Lotte Chemicals. The $4.1b project was opened in October and is considered key to Uzbekistan’s future economic plans.

The Uzbek government will directly invest around $236m in the Sharkiy Berdakh gas fields near the Aral Sea to complete the new booster compressor station it is building with Ukrainian firm Sumy. The state-run Fund for Reconstruction and Development will provide an additional $58m through a loan.

Uzbekistan is in the top 15 gas producing countries in the world and sees it as the bedrock of its future economic plans. It’s a gamble, though. Uzbekistan and its partners have committed to large energy projects, with fixed up-front costs, as energy prices continue to bounce along record lows.

If it all goes to plan, the project will be completed in November 2016 and output at the gas fields will be increased by 15% to around 2b cubic metres annually. Improved infrastructure will allow Sharkiy Berdakh to supply the Ustyurt plant, located around 100km away in the remote Karakalpakstan region of western Uzbekistan.

The Ustyurt chemical complex has a processing capacity of 4.5b cubic metres per year. It has been designed to turn Uzbekistan into a gas processing hub for Central Asia and also Russia.

Uzbekistan is also looking to invest in its largest chemical complex, Navoiazot. The government issued a $393m loan last week to extend its nitrogen and ammonia facilities.

The Uzbek government has put 49% of Navoiazot, in central Uzbekistan, up for sale to foreign investors in a recent drive to privatise state assets to raise funds to ward off a worsening economic slowdown.