Banks Eye Kazakh Petchem Project

South Korea's LG Chem may take part in building a petrochemical plant in oil-rich Kazakhstan and Korean banks may lend up to $1.5 billion to finance the project, a Kazakh official said. Aidan Karibzhanov, managing director of Kazakh state welfare fund Samruk-Kazyna which controls key state assets, said active talks with LG Chem were ­under way. "Several Korean financial institutions, including ­Korea's Eximbank, have expressed interest in financing the project for up to $1.5 billion," he said. Kazakh state energy firm KazMunaiGas and private company SAT & Co plan to build the plant in western Kazakhstan, close to the Central Asian country's main oil producers, by 2013. Its cost is estimated between $5.3 and $7.5 billion.