Kazakhstan, Astana, Nov. 29 / Trend K. Konyrova /
Kiev was late with a proposal of building a refinery by Kazakhstan in the Ukraine, an anonymous source in the Kazakh oil and gas sector told Trend.
"The proposal on the joint construction of oil refinery in Ukraine is utopia, at least for the next 10 to 20 years," the source said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov earlier told Trend that Kazakhstan could enter the European market not only from the Romanian side by buying a refinery there, but also by reaching the Ukrainian market.
"In particular, it could be done by exploiting one of our refineries, or constructing a joint plant," he said.
A Kazakh source said that Kiev was slow with this proposal, as Kazakhstan has already invested significant investment in modernising the Petromidia plant in Romania.
The KazMunayGas National Company bought out the Rompetrol Group for 1.7 billion seven years ago. Its assets include two oil refineries in Romania, seven of its own oil bases, as well as a network of filling stations not only in this country, but also in France, Spain, Moldova, Bulgaria and Georgia.
The Petromidia refinery modernisation is under completion. It will increase its capacity from 3.5 million to 5 million tons a year with Kazakh oil being delivered by tankers via the Black Sea. Thus, the Kazakh Company will be able to produce petrol to a high standard - Euro-5, and Euro-6 by 2014 in Europe.
"Moreover, Kazakhstan had a bad experience of buying a refinery in Ukraine, Kherson at the dawn of independence," the source said. "The idea was a fiasco for many political reasons."
He said that today Kazakhstan faces challenges in modernising its three refineries.