Kazakhstan's Atyrau Oil Refinery reaches design capacity after repairs

ALMATY. Nov 7 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's Atyrau Oil Refinery has returned to its design throughput capacity after the completion of a scheduled maintenance program, National Company KazMunayGas (KMG) said in a press release on Tuesday.

"Today, liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline and diesel are being produced and shipped by the company according to the schedule approved by the Energy Ministry," the press release says.

Maintenance programs are carried out at the refinery every year to ensure equipment operates steadily and to increase production efficiency.

In the course of this year's scheduled maintenance work, a total of as 2,753 instrumentation and control devices were checked, 723 motors and 62 items of substation equipment inspected and tested, 803 pressure vessels and 1,539 pieces of pipelines inspected and certified, according to the press release.

The scheduled maintenance program was launched at the Atyrau refinery on October 1 of this year. The program was scheduled to continue until the first week of November.

Atyrau Oil Refinery is one of three major oil refineries in Kazakhstan, whose principal owner is KazMunayGas. The design processing capacity is 5.5 million tonnes per year, and product yield is up to 86.4%.