Kazakhstan needs new oil refinery due to oil prices fluctuations
By Aynur Jafarova
Kazakhstan needs to establish a new oil refinery to protect itself against the fluctuations of the world raw material prices, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at a nation-wide teleconference dedicated to the Day of Industrialization on December 25.
“Establishing a new oil refinery is the most important task in our program to become one of the top 30 economically strong states,” Nazarbayev said.
“Amid the decreasing world oil and gas prices, the establishment is the only way out of this situation,” he noted. “We need to build a new oil refinery to produce more finished products.”
Atyrau Oil Refinery was commissioned in 1945. The plant’s first product was gasoline. The initial capacity of the plant stood at 800,000 metric tons per year.
In his remarks, Atyrau Oil Refinery’s Director General Kairat Urazbayev said: “we are going to start testing of the new installations. This is our contribution to the country that complies with the requirements of K-3 environmental grade. With the realization of this project, the harmful impact to the environment will be reduced through using of gasoline with low benzene content.”
CurrentlyKazakhstan has several oil refineries, which are located in Shymkent (country's southern part), Atyrau (western part) and Pavlodar (northern part). The total processing capacity of them is 13 million tons per year.
According to the forecasts, the gasoline production in Kazakhstan in 2014 amounts to 2,885 million metric tons, while the consumption is expected to reach 4,168 million metric tons.
Kazakhstan is currently upgrading all of its oil refineries. The process is scheduled to be completed in 2016. After the upgrade, Kazakhstan's need for light petroleum products will be fully met.