Press releases
Should Kazakhs be afraid of yet another fuel shortage
Fuel shortage seemed to be a normal feature of autumn season in Kazakhstan. Kazakhs got used to the idea that fall in temperature inevitably leads to the lack of fuel and long queues at gas stations. This year, however, fuel crisis has been avoided.
Above all, this was made possible thanks to the completion of a long-awaited modernisation of three oil refining facilities owned by KazMunayGas – in Pavlodar, Shymkent and Atyrau. Modernisation of petrochemical plant in Pavlodar has been completed and included new isomerisation units, naphtha splitters and sulphur generation units. During the modernisation of Shymkent refinery completed in May 2018, the machinery has been replaced and checked along with the integration of a new Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracker unit in the existing production chain. The commissioning of the new unit allows to start the production of high-octane fuel components.
Modernisation of Atyrau refinery was also completed in May and allowed to increase the production of light oils. The work was comprised of two stages – the construction of aromatic carbons production complex in 2016 and the construction of advanced oil refining complex (construction of 12 separate process units).
However, all these efforts may not be enough to avoid a fuel crisis in the future. At the beginning of 2018 the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan released forecasts for the expected fuel shortage – by 2021 Kazakhstan will not be able to cope with the petrol shortage in the domestic market.
To avoid such a prospect, in February 2018 Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, requested to expedite action on the construction of the fourth oil refinery, that has been discussed for some time now.
This spring in Karaganda a contract worth 300 bln tenge has been signed with the investor from Singapore, and in September 100 ha plot of land has been allocated for the construction of the fourth refinery in Zhanaarka District of Karaganda Region. According to the preliminary estimation, the plant will be producing up to 1 mln tonnes of oil a year. The owner of the project is KazMunayGas that established a working group on the pre-feasibility study. What are the next steps the company plans to take in order to put the fourth refinery in the active construction phase?
On December 4th, at the fifth annual Downstream Caspian and Central Asia conference in Almaty, Daniyar Tiesov, the deputy chairman of board for oil transportation, refining and marketing, will speak about the plans for the construction of the fourth refinery and the modernisation results of the three existing refineries. Daniyar Tiesov will head a delegation of 40 representatives of KazMunayGas and its three refineries.
This year KazMunayGas became a leading partner of the conference stressing its pro-active stance in the downstream sector as well as its ambitious plans.
The 5th international Downstream Caspian and Central Asia conference will be held on 4-5 of December in Rixos Almaty Hotel. More information may be found on the event website.
National Company KazMunayGas is the biggest oil & gas operator in Central Asia refining more than 80% of Kazakhstani oil and implementing a range of projects in oil refining and petrochemical industries.