Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 27 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova/
The construction of oil refinery of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) in Kyrgyzstan may decrease the volume of oil products, imported from Russia, Kyrgyz Deputy Minister of the Natural Resources Kairat Djumaliev told Trend on Tuesday.
" If Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan build the oil refinery, the balance of oil products' supplies from Russia may decrease," Djumaliev said.
He added that the process of the oil refinery's construction is under development.
Kyrgyz media reported that the country's Parliament approved the agreement with Russia on the oil products' supp lies, which makes Russian Gazprom an exclusive oil supplier to Kyrgyzstan.
Djumaliyev said this agreement covers only the relations between Russia and Kyrgyzstan and has no connection to other oil products' suppliers, such as Kazakhstan.
"We sign such a balance with Russia every year which then becomes the basis for oil products' supplies from this country," he added.
The ratification of this agreement will not hamper the supplies of crude oil from Azerbaijan and its further processing in Kyrgyzstan after the SOCAR's oil refinery is constructed, Djumaliev said.
The agreement on the construction of the oil refinery was reached on Jan.19 at a meeting of Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev and SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev. The oil refinery is scheduled to be commissioned in late 2013.
The minimum cost of the oil refinery, which SOCAR plans to build in Kyrgyzstan, hits $100 million.
SOCAR includes the Azneft production association (the companies producing oil and gas on and offshore), the Azerkimya industrial association (chemical enterprises) and Azerigaz industrial association (gas distribution).
SOCAR is the only producer of oil products in the country (it has two refineries on its balance sheet) and also owns petrol stations in Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Ukraine. SOCAR is co-owner of the largest Turkish petrochemical complex Petkim. The company carries out oil trade in various regions of the world through SOCAR Trading.