Kazakh president orders work to start on fourth oil refinery
ASTANA. Jan 17 (Interfax) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has given orders to start building a fourth oil refinery in the country.
"We are an oil producing country and need to build another refinery as soon as possible," Nazarbayev said in his address to the nation on Friday in Astana.
"The country needs more gasoline and diesel fuel, we suffer a shortage of kerosene. It is nonsense!" the president said.
Nazarbayev also instructed the government to decide on a site for the fourth refinery and a nuclear power plant by the end the first quarter of 2014.
"The government by the end of the first quarter of 2014 should resolve the issues regarding the sites, investment sources and construction schedule of the fourth refinery and a nuclear power plant," Nazarbayev said.
In the spring of last year, the former oil and gas minister, Sauat Mynbayev, said he was in favor of bringing the construction of the fourth refinery forward from 2020 to 2016 due to forecast growth in demand for petroleum products in Kazakhstan.
Construction of the new refinery is tied in with the development of the giant Kashagan oilfield in the Caspian shelf.
There are currently three refineries in Kazakhstan: Atyrau (west Kazakhstan), Shymkent (south Kazakhstan) and Pavlodar (north Kazakhstan). They all are controlled National Company KazMunayGas.
