ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 27. Kazakhstan plans to increase oil refining volumes to 27 million tons, said Vice Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan Askhat Khassenov, Trend reports.
He claims that work to enhance capacity at the country's oil refineries has already begun.
Thus, at the Shymkent Oil Refinery, the volume of oil refining will increase from 6 million tons to 12 million tons; at the Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant, from 5.5 million tons to 8 million tons; at the Atyrau Refinery, from 700,000 tons to 1 million tons; and at the CaspiBitum, from 1 million tons to 1.5 million tons.
As Khassenov indicated, implementing the aforementioned projects will enhance the depth of oil refining at refineries from 75–80 percent to 87 percent. As a result, the local market will receive high-quality light petroleum products as well as petrochemical products with a high added value.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan produced 90 million tons of oil in 2023, which is 6.9 percent higher than in 2022. Oil exports also increased and amounted to 70.5 million tons, which is 9.6 percent more than the previous year.
Moreover, Kazakhstan plans to increase oil production in 2024 to 90.3 million tons.