Turkmenistan broke ground on Tuesday on a $1.7 billion facility to convert its abundant natural gas into synthetic gasoline.
"The construction of such an advanced facility clearly demonstrates the dynamic growth of our economy," President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said after laying the cornerstone of the foundation of the complex.
The project is located 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the capital Ashgabat.
"The oil and gas sector is one of the main elements of our economy and today as demand for natural gas and its derivatives is growing that is why we participating in such international projects," he added.
The ex-Soviet hermit state of Turkmenistan sits on the world`s fourth-biggest natural gas reserves and also boasts vast oil deposits.
But the Central Asian country remains one of the world`s most isolated nations almost two-and-a-half decades after the collapse of the USSR and its decision making is opaque.
Berdymukhamedov said the facility would convert annually 1.8 billion cubic metres of natural gas into 600,000 tonnes (750 mn litres) of synthetic 92 octane petrol that meets EU environmental standards when it opens in 2018.
The national gas company Turkmengas has contracted out the constuction of the facility to Japan`s Kawasaki Heavy Industry Ltd and Turkey`s Ronesans Turkmen.
Japan`s JBIC development bank helped fund the project.
It will be the first large facility to use new conversion technology by Haldor Topsoe, the Danish company said in a statement.
"The plant in Turkmenistan is extremely important to us," chief executive Bjerne Clausen said in a statement.
This was "because it is the first large scale project in the world where we can showcase how our technology can help a nation with huge natural gas reserves monetize their natural resources by diversifying beyond conventional gas markets into transportation fuels."
Turkmengaz signed $4 billion in agreements with South Korea`s LG and Hyundai to build natural gas-processing plants in June.
