Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant JSC which is located in the northern Kazakhstan signed an engineering, procurement and construction agreement with the Romanian SC Rominserv SRL on the modernization of production.

Under the agreement, the partner performs the survey, design and the negotiation works, makes a choice and the purchase of materials and equipment for implementation of the project, and performs construction, assembly and commissioning works, Trend news agency quoted Director General of the refinery Shukhrat Danbai as saying.

The project of modernization will be implemented in two phases.

The first phase will finish by March 2016.

By that time the plant should receive Euro-4 and Euro-5 products and further supply them to the Kazakh market, he said.

The second phase will end by the first quarter of 2017, when the power of plant's units will be brought to the level of processing seven million tons of oil a year, Danbai said.

Meanwhile, he noted that the final decision on the implementation of the second phase will be taken by September 2014.

According to Danbai, the total cost of the work will amount to $1.72 billion.

Three oil refineries are operating in Kazakhstan, which is located in Shymkent (country's southern part), Atyrau (western part) and Pavlodar (northern part). All three oil refineries are being controlled by KazMunaiGas.

Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant was built in 1978 and initially focused on processing of oil from Western Siberia, which is obtained from the Russian pipeline.

Rominserv is a division and the general contractor of the Romanian company Rompetrol Group which is the biggest foreign asset of Kazakhstan's national operator KazMunaiGas in refining sphere.