Turkmenistan - Chemical IndustryTurkmenistan - Chemical Industry

Overview

Turkmenistan has nine chemical plants that produce nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers (700,000 tons per year), sulfuric and nitric acids, iodine, bromine, and mineral salts. In 2014, Turkmenistan inaugurated a urea plant with capacity of 640,000 tons per year and an ammonia plant with the capacity of 400,000 tons per year in the south-eastern city of Mary. These plants will annually utilize 500 million cubic meters of natural gas as feed stock. The government reported that Turkmenistan produced 448,000 tons of various mineral fertilizers in 2015.

Turkmenistan has plans to increase fertilizer production to approximately 5,000,000 tons per year, of which 1,400,000 tons will be potash fertilizers. In March 2017, Turkmenistan opened a major potash fertilizer plant in Garlyk village of Lebap province, capable of producing 1,400,000 tons of fertilizer per year. However, the government of Turkmenistan stated in March 2018 Belarus hasn’t completely fulfilled its contractual obligations when building the Garlyk plant.  According to unofficial reports, the Garlyk plant is currently operating at 2 percent of its total capacity due technical complications.  Turkmenistan also plans to increase iodine production from 500 to 1,515 tons per year by 2030. According to official statistics, Turkmenistan produced 571.3 tons of iodine, 460.5 tons of mineral fertilizers and 119.2 tons of sulphuric acid in 2016.

In September 2018, a USD 1.5 billion carbamide (urea) fertilizer plant opened on the Caspian coast in Garabogaz, Balkan province.  The plant, built by Turkey’s Gap Insaat and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, has the capacity to produce 1.1 million tons of urea annually using about 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas as feedstock.  As of June 2019, the facility is not operating at or near full capacity. 

The government also announced plans to set up joint ventures with foreign companies to produce various types of chemicals based on local raw materials. In Febrary 2018, Turkmenistan opened a float glass manufacturing plant in Ovadandepe in Ahal province, but unofficial sources report the glass plant is not operating at or near full capacity.
Chemical Industry (No statistics or estimates available):

	2015	2016	2017	2018 (Estimated)
Total Local Production	*[1]	*	*
Total Exports	*	*	*
Total Imports	*	*	*
Imports from the US	*	*	*
Total Market Size	*	*	*
Exchange Rates	3.5	3.5	3.5

(total market size = (total local production + imports) - exports)

Leading Sub-Sectors

Production of organic polymers such as polyethylene and polypropylene; construction of new industrial facilities for the production and export of products such as caustic soda, chlorine and its derivatives, as well as potassium fertilizers, high grade glass and insulation composite materials of basalt fibers.

Opportunities

Construction of urea and ammonia plants; utilization of sulfur resulting from natural gas production processes, and construction of iodine and bromine plants. Building of new industrial facilities for the production and export of products such as caustic soda, chlorine and its derivatives, potassium fertilizers, high grade glass and insulation composite materials of basalt fibers.

Web Resources

• Ministry of Energy of Turkmenistan (http://minenergo.gov.tm/)

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