Shymkent Oil Refinery modernization to involve 890 foreigners

890 foreign experts will be involved in reconstruction and modernization of the Shymkent Oil Refinery in southern Kazakhstan, Tengrinews reports citing Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.

On May 16th the Kazakhstan government signed a decree setting a 2014 foreign labor quota for the project of Reconstruction and Modernization of the Shymkent Oil Refinery and specifying the conditions of issuance of the foreign labor permissions. The foreign work force quota was set to 890 people: 5 experts of the first category (top executives), 33 experts (heads of departments) of the second category, 733 experts (highly qualified professionals) of the third category and 119 experts (qualified professionals) of the fourth category.

The decree will come into force once it is published in the official media. 

Earlier this week the Development Bank of Kazakhstan and China’s Exim Bank signed a memorandum to provide $1 billion for modernization of the Shymkent-based refinery. The investments will help the refinery make its products environment-friendly and reach the capacity of 6 million tons of fuel a year.

The modernization effort is expected to be completed in 2016.