In Febraury 2008, the Korean consortium led by Korean Gas Corporation (KOGAS) and Uzbekneftegaz national holding company signed constituent documents on creation of UzKorGasChemical with charter capital of US$600 million on an equal footing to construct Ustyurt Gas-Chemical Complex with preliminary cost of US$1.5 billion. The Korean consortium includes KOGAS (17.5% share in the venture), Honam Petrochemical Corp (17.5%), LG International, SK Gaz and STX Energy (each 5% share).

It is expected that the sides will receive reserves audit of Surgil by the end of October and in line with the agreement and after that they will start to draft investment agreement, which is planned to ink by the end of 2009.

Currently, Uzbekneftegaz is carrying out gas-field construction at Surgil deposit with own forces, which will ensure production of 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the launch of Ustyurt Gas-Chemical Complex. It is planned to get other 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas from other deposits from Ustyurt region.

Samsung Engineering and UzLITIneftgaz developed the part of the project in 2009, which envisages construction of gas-chemical complex with the capacity of 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas and organization of polyethylene production with the capacity of 400,000 tonnes and polypropylene with the capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year.

In line with the schedule, the first line of the complex will be launched in November 2011. The complex will start to work in full capacity till 2012.

The project is financed due to resources and loans, attracted by the Korean company, for US$1.694 billion, own funds of Uzbekneftegaz for US$1.21 billion and credit of Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan for US$350 million.