Lotte Chemical, the petrochemicals manufacturing arm of South Korea’s diversified Lotte Group, has completed construction of a chemical complex worth $389 million at Surgil, Uzbekistan.

Claimed to be the largest petrochemical production site in Europe or Asia, the complex is scheduled to begin commercial-scale production in January 2016. It will have capacity for around 260,000 t/y of methane as well as 470,000 t/y of ethane, to be used as feedstock for downstream polyethylene and high-density polypropylene plants.

Gas to produce ethane and methane will come from the gas fields of Uzbekistan's state-run oil and gas company, Uzbekneftegaz, which will also buy the methane.

In 2006, Uzbekistan and South Korea agreed a strategic partnership. Subsequently, a chemical production joint venture was established between the Uzbekistan state and a South Korean consortium led by Lotte Chemical, Korea Gas and GS E&R.

Lotte Chemical is also collaborating with US vinyls producer Axiall on a shale gas-fed 1 million t/y ethane cracker in the US state of Louisiana, where production is planned to begin in 2018.