Turkmenistan opens $3.4 billion chemical plant

KIYANLY, Turkmenistan (AP) - The Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan has opened a chemical plant that cost $3.4 billion to build, its latest effort to diversity its gas-dependent economy.

Turkmenistan is home to one of the world's largest natural gas deposits, and the new plant on the shores of the Caspian Sea will process gas to produce polyethylene and polypropylene to export via a new naval port.

The Turkmen government took on 15 percent of the plant's financing with the rest of the investments coming from Japan's Toyo Engineering and South Korea's LG International and Hyundai Engineering.

Turkmenistan's revenues from gas exports have fallen sharply after Russia stopped buying some of its gas over a pricing dispute. Russia, however, is set to resume the purchases next year.