Kazakh investor for $1bn Mogilevkhimvolokno project

        The Kazakh national oil and gas company KazMunayGas is looking into ways to take part in a $1 billion investment project of the Belarusian company Mogilevkhimvolokno. An agreement on cooperation with KazMunayGas was reached during the visit of Prime Minister of Belarus Mr Mikhail Myasnikovich to Kazakhstan in November 2012. The project will include a complex to make terephthalic acid out of Kazakh paraxylene. Terephthalic acid will then be processed by Mogilevkhimvolokno to make polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and after that polyester fiber. In comparison with the present technology the new complex will be much more effective as far as energy costs involved in the manufacturing process are concerned. Mogilevkhimvolokno will build a new complex able to make about 600,000 tonnes of polyester fiber per annum. The company plans to export about half of it. The Kazakh side is now busy with pre-investment preparations relating to the analysis of the project. The program provides for finishing the project in 2020, said the source.