Tatarstan ready to share experience in oil refining with Kazakhstan

A large delegation from Russia’s federal subject Tatarstan has visited Astana. Led by the president of Tatarstan, 700 delegates, including 65 heads of Tatar industrial companies, came to Kazakhstan’s capital Astana for a business forum, Tengrinews correspondent reported on September 19.

Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Industry and Trade of Tatarstan Ravil Zaripov said that Tatarstan was ready to share its experience in oil refining with Kazakhstan. The issues became especially acute in the context of fuel deficit in Kazakhstan.

"We would be very happy (to help), because there also was a time when we did not have much experience. For example, in the course of our last project Tatneft built a plant capable of refining 7 million tons of oil, using the latest licensing agreements. This is very good, we are open and ready to invite our colleagues from Kazakhstan to show and tell them everything in more detail. Doing this only requires interest of our colleagues from Kazakhstan," he said.

Tatneft, the sixth largest oil company in Russia, is headquartered in Tatarstan and employs a vertically integrated technology. Zaripov said that Tatarstan was almost fully supplying itself with its own gasoline and that processing depth at Tatarstan's refineries equaled to 97 percent.

"We would like to stabilise our production at around 32 million tons of oil so that there is oil left for our future generations (...). We are introducing active technologies and various methods to enhance oil recovery. We could exchange views in this direction," Zaripov said.

He added that Tatarstan was focusing on refining as much of the crude it produces as possible, and was working towards refining 21 million tons out of the 32 tons of crude oil it produces.

The official then asked whether Kazakhstan approached the delegation with an invitation to participate in construction of the fourth oil refinery in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan currently has three refineries and is mulling the fourth one. 

The Minister replied: "Maybe these questions will be raised during our today's meeting. (...) But we are ready to participate (in construction of the refinery): we have qualified professionals and engineers, designs, understanding and knowledge of the area," he said.

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technology CIS cooperation Kazakh Kazakhstan news Oil refinery Russia Tatarstan Central Asia