Oil refineries will not be suspended during the modernization: Oil and Gas Minister

Kazakhstan’s Oil and Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev assures that during the modernization of the three oil refineries fuel supplies to the domestic market will not be decreased. “The oil refineries will not be suspended during the modernization (…) Each of the refineries is out of service for a month a year for planned repairs. We spread the repairs evenly throughout the year so that they wouldn’t affect supplies. These periods will be used for reconstruction”, Mr. Mynbayev said in an online conference at Bnews.kz. The Minister elaborated that in 2020 the Ministry plans to start constructing a 4th oil refinery given the projected demand in 2025. “Expanded capacities of the three refineries with the projected demand for fuel will not be enough. We were substantially slow to start reconstruction. It has led to troubled fuel supplies regardless of abundant oil”, the Minister elaborated. According to him, prep works for construction of the 4th refinery will start as early as in 2018. Oil and Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev had said earlier that, “overhaul of the three refineries before 2015 [based in Pavlodar, Shymkent and Atyrau] will enable to raise processing to 17.5 million tons, introducing deeper conversion to start producing petrol in line with Euro-5 emission standards”. Before modernization the refineries processed a bit over 13 million tons a year.