Uzbekistan chases chemical hub dream with Chinese polymer tech

KARAKUL, Uzbekistan -- An ambitious economic transformation effort gaining steam in Uzbekistan hinges on Chinese technology. At the heart of the plan is a project that would make value-added products from natural gas instead of simply burning it for energy.

The Central Asian country's largest private oil and gas company, Sanoat Energetika Guruhi (Saneg), is working with Chinese state energy giant Sinopec to build what would be the world's first methanol-to-olefin gas chemical plant outside China. Olefins are raw materials for a range of polymer products such as plastics and films.