New oil refinery may be built in Kazakhstan in 2020

Kazakhstan may start construction of a new oil refinery in 2020, Kazakhstan’s O&G Minister Sauat Mynbayev said today when speaking before the country’s Majilis (lower chamber), Novosti Kazakhstan reports. “Before the year 2020 processing capacities of the current three refineries [based in Pavlodar, Atyrau and Shymkent] can meet the domestic demand”, he said. As of today, according to him, Kazakhstan-based refineries process a bot over 13 million tons a year. The three facilities are to go through overhauls within the program to modernize oil processing facilities in 2010-2014. In 2010, the three refineries processed a total of 13.7 million tons of crude, 570 000 tons over the plan.