Kazakhstan plans to build a new large refinery and boost existing refining capacity to more than double its crude processing capacity by 2040, Energy Minister Yerlan Akenzhenov said on Tuesday.
Last year, the refining processing rate of the OPEC+ oil producer was 18 million tons per year. Expansion of existing capacity will boost the oil refining volumes between 2025 and 2032, from the current 18 million tons per year to 30 million tons per year, the minister said.
Then, by 2040, Kazakhstan plans to launch a new large-scale refinery with a capacity of 10 million tons per year.
All these expansions are set to more than double oil refining capacity to 40 million tons annually by 2040 from 18 million tons per year now.
With the capacity expansion comes the target to double petroleum product output to 29.2 million tons by 2040, up from 14.55 million tons expected for the current year.
Earlier this year, Talgat Makuov, deputy director of the energy ministry’s oil transportation and refining department, said that Kazakhstan’s goal to more than double its refining capacity would need investments of between $15 billion and $19 billion.
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“Expected investments in sector development, according to the Concept, range from $15 billion to $19 billion, enabling an increase in refining capacity from 18 to 39 million tons per year while significantly improving processing efficiency,” Makuov was quoted as saying by local outlet The Times of Central Asia.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan has boosted its crude oil production this year and keeps pumping well above its quota in the OPEC+ agreement, although it continues to reaffirm its commitment to the deal.
Non-OPEC producer Kazakhstan is part of the OPEC+ agreement, but it has been overproducing for years above its quota and hasn’t done enough to compensate for the overproduction yet. Kazakhstan has raised production this year from expansion projects involving international majors such as Chevron.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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