Japan's company wins $300 mln order for gas-fired plant in Turkmenistan

Trading house Sumitomo Corp said on Oct. 26 it had won a $300 million order for a 400-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Turkmenistan, part of a package of deals announced on a visit to the Central Asian nation by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 

Japan and Turkmenistan on Oct. 23 signed deals worth over $18 billion in the energy-rich nation, which has become an important supplier of natural gas to China. 

Sumitomo said it aimed to complete the construction of the simple-cycle gas-fired plant in 2018, and that the main equipment such as a gas turbine and power generator would be procured from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd. 

Turkmenistan, a reclusive nation of 5.5 million, holds the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas. Since independence in 1991, it has launched ambitious projects to process the commodity at home and find new export routes. 

Japan's Abe last week started a tour of the five post-Soviet Central Asian nations where former imperial master Russia and China are vying for clout. 

Japanese companies are already involved in large-scale projects in Turkmenistan, building plants to process natural gas into fertilizers, ethylene, polyethylene and polypropylene, as well as into liquid fuel.

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