ASTANA, Kazakhstan, February 28. The total volume of hydrocarbon processing at KazMunayGas' (KMG, the national oil and gas company of Kazakhstan) enterprises amounted to 19.6 million tons in 2023, Trend reports.
According to the KMG's data, compared to 2022 (19.9 million tons), this figure decreased by 1.5 percent.
Thus, the volume of hydrocarbon processing at Kazakh refineries decreased by 0.4 percent and amounted to 14.2 million tons.
As the KMG noted, the reduction in processing occurred mainly at the Shymkent refinery due to a decrease in load in the middle of the reporting year on the back of unscheduled repairs of the heat exchanger at the catalytic reforming and catalyst regeneration plant. The increase in refining volumes at the Atyrau refinery partially offset the decrease in the volumes at the Shymkent refinery.
At the same time, the processing volume at KMG International's plants (Petromidia, Vega) in Romania decreased by 4.3 percent and amounted to 5.3 million tons.
KazMunayGas noted that, the reduction in the volume of processing at KMG International's plants occurred after the incident at the soft hydrocracking plant in mid-summer 2023. Restoration work continues at the facility, the completion of which has been postponed to the end of the first quarter of 2024, due to the large volume of repair work on the restoration of reactors related to ensuring the integrity of equipment and further safe operation of the facility.
Meanwhile, the volume of oil and gas condensate production by KMG amounted to 23.5 million tons (486,000 barrels per day) in 2023. The volume of oil and gas condensate production grew by 6.5 percent from 2022.
At the same time, natural and related gas output climbed by 14.8 percent over the reporting period, reaching 9.45 billion cubic meters.