No fuel price hikes: KazMunaiGas Chairman of the Board

KazMunaiGas Chairman of the Board Bolat Akchulakov does not expect a hike in prices for petrol against the backdrop of decreased oil supplies from Russia, Tengrinews.kz reports. “Russia has been traditionally supplying 6-7 million tons, mostly to the Pavlodar-based oil refinery (...) There are no direct supplies through an oil pipeline. At the outset the oil refinery was built to process Siberian oil. Reduction of oil supplies from 7 to 6 will not have a substantial impact on fuel prices. Being the National Oil and Gas Company, we are trying to resolve the issue of oil supplies to the Pavlodar-based oil refinery from Kazakhstan’s oilfields. Price hikes are unlikely”, Mr. Akchulakov said in an interview on the sidelines of the Kazakh-US investments forum in NY arranged by the Samruk-Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund. At the moment there are three oil refineries operating in Kazakhstan: in Atyrau, Shymkent and Pavlodar. According to Minister of Oil and Gas Sauat Mynbayev, “overhaul of the three refineries will enable to raise processing to 17.5 million tons, introducing deeper conversion to start producing petrol in line with Euro-5 emission standards”. Mid-July Tengrinews.kz reported, citing PM Karim Massimov, that a special survey had been made and it had shown that it was more feasible for Kazakhstan to upgrade three existing plants, rather than construct a new one. Construction of the fourth plant would cost the country $6 billion, while reconstruction of existing refineries will cost $2.5-3 billion. Massimov said that modernization of existing plants would finish not later than on January 1, 2015.