ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 28. Several large projects in the petrochemical industry worth $14.3 billion will be implemented in Kazakhstan within five years, said Energy Minister Almassadam Satkaliev during a government meeting, Trend reports.
"The further development of the petrochemical industry is the basis for the country's economic growth. The Ministry is carrying out comprehensive work in this direction; by 2029, it is planned to implement five large projects worth about $14.3 billion," he said.
According to the minister, the implementation of these projects will ensure annual economic growth of 1.5 percent as well as create about 20,000 jobs, including 17,000 jobs at the construction stage and 3,000 jobs at the operation stage.
"Already this year, construction of a project for the production of butadiene and its derivatives with a capacity of up to 340,000 tons will begin, and an investment decision will be made on one of the largest projects in the entire history of the country, the polyethylene project with a capacity of 1.2 million tons," Satkaliev noted.
As he noted, Kazakhstan plans to increase production of petrochemical products by 75 percent in 2024.
"The Ministry is taking a number of measures to increase the workload of existing enterprises, which will ensure the production of 628,300 tons of petrochemical products by the end of the year, or an increase of 75 percent compared to the same period last year (2023–358,700 tons)," he said.
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.