Total oil refining in Russia to drop by 2.7 mln tonnes in 2009
MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax) - Total oil refining in Russia will drop for 2009 by 2.7 million tonnes, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said during government hour in the State Duma on Wednesday.
"Expected this year is a slight drop in oil refining in Russia of 2.7 million tonnes," he said.
"This, of course, is the result of declining consumer demand for petroleum products both on the domestic and foreign markets following the crisis in the world economy," he said.
Shmatko added that Russia currently has 28 major oil refineries with over 1 million tonnes in annual capacity and around 80 mini refineries. Total design capacity for primary refinement in Russia comes to 270 million tonnes annually. Major Russian refineries account for around 81% of total capacity (254.4 million tonnes).
Shmatko said that oil production was nonetheless increasing. "To date, the total increase in oil output against the same period of 2008 comes to over 4 million tonnes," he said.