ASTANA, Kazakhstan, November 8. The consumption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has increased sharply in Kazakhstan, said Energy Minister Almassadam Satkaliyev, Trend reports.
As he noted, the increase in LPG consumption in the country is connected with cars switching to running on LPG.
"The balance that was in the production of liquefied petroleum gas increased by 25 percent in nine months. We have to find additional volume. We held negotiations with Tengizchevroil. It supplied an additional 10,000 tons of gas to the domestic market," the minister said.
Satkaliyev noted that if the switching of cars to gas continues to increase at this rate, then in the future there will not be enough processing capacity.
"There may be some period in the future in which we will import liquefied petroleum gas. And these will be completely different prices, comparable to gasoline prices," he added.
From January through October 2023, the KazMunayGas refineries produced over 650,000 tons of LPG.
Thus, the Atyrau Oil Refinery, with a plan of 132,919 tons, has already generated nearly 150,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas, exceeding the goal by 13 percent.
During the same time period, the Pavlodar Oil Refinery generated over 250,000 tons of gas (an 8 percent increase over the planned 232,775 tons).
In turn, the Shymkent Oil Refinery is doing 13 percent better than expected: since the beginning of the year, the plant has generated nearly 251,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas, although the plan called for just 222,571 tons.