Azernews.Az

The construction of an oil refinery of Azerbaijani state oil company Socar in Kyrgyzstan may reduce the volume of oil products imported from Russia, Kyrgyz Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Kairat Djumaliev told Azerbaijan’s Trend news agency.

"If Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan build the oil refinery, the balance of oil product supplies from Russia may decrease," Djumaliev said.

He added that the process of the oil refinery's construction is under development.

Kyrgyz media reported that the country's parliament has approved an agreement with Russia on oil product supplies, which allegedly makes Russian giant Gazprom an exclusive oil supplier to Kyrgyzstan.

Djumaliev said this agreement covers only the relations between Russia and Kyrgyzstan and has no bearing on other oil product suppliers, such as Kazakhstan.

"We sign such an agreement with Russia every year, which then becomes the basis for oil product supplies from this country," he said.

The ratification of this agreement will not hamper the supplies of crude oil from Azerbaijan and its further refining in Kyrgyzstan after Socar's oil refinery is constructed, Djumaliev said.

The agreement on the construction of the oil refinery was reached in January at a meeting of Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev and Socar President Rovnag Abdullayev. The oil refinery is due to be commissioned in late 2013.

The facility is estimated at $100 million.

Socar is the only producer of oil products in the country (it has two refineries), and also owns petrol stations in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine. Socar is co-owner of the largest Turkish petrochemical complex Petkim. The company carries out the oil trade in various regions of the world through Socar Trading.