CNCEC shows interest in building gas turbine power plant at Atyrau oil refinery

ASTANA. Oct 18 (Interfax) - KazMunayGas (KMG) CEO Magzum Mirzagaliev discussed the idea of building a gas turbine power plant at the Atyrau Oil Refinery with Zhiyuan Lu, Director for ASEAN Region for the China National Chemical Engineering Co (CNCEC).

"We have reached an understanding with our partners from CNCEC on the gas plant project's implementation, covering design, construction, and financing stages. Importantly, there are plans to allocate surplus electricity to meet the needs of the Atyrau region's population," Mirzagaliev said.

In turn, the regional director of CNCEC confirmed the company's interest in this project. "Our company confirms its commitment to the joint project with KMG. We are currently discussing with our Kazakh colleagues the optimal options for its implementation on mutually beneficial terms," he said.

KMG said that this facility should ensure the reliability of external power supply for the new part of the Atyrau Refinery, minimize equipment outages and reduce the risks of forced discharges to flares during emergencies. The capacity of the gas turbine power plant will be 154 MWh.

KMG is still looking for an investor. It plans to identify a partner for the construction of the gas turbine power plant and conclude an agreement with the investor by the end of this year, it was reported.

In fact, CNCEC acted as an EPC contractor during the construction of the Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries Inc. LLP plant. (KPI) in Atyrau.

Kazakhstan is looking for partners for the construction of a gas turbine power plant at the Atyrau Oil Refinery; on August 18, an open day was held for potential investors.

This year, in western Kazakhstan, several accidents occurred at the Mangistau Nuclear Power Plant, which disrupted energy supplies to the region as a whole, as well as to the Atyrau Refinery. The Government of Kazakhstan believes that the construction of its own energy source at the Atyrau Refinery will prevent interruptions in the company's power supply in the future.

The Atyrau Oil Refinery is one of three large oil refineries in Kazakhstan. The main owner of the enterprise is state company KazMunayGas. Its processing capacity is 5.5 million tonnes per year, and the processing depth is up to 86.4%.