ASTANA, Kazakhstan, December 19. KazMunayGas and CITIC Group are strengthening bilateral cooperation by increasing the capacity of the Caspi Bitum plant, Trend reports.
During a working visit to China, the Chairman of the Board of KazMunayGas, Askhat Kassenov, met on December 18 with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of CITIC Group, Xi Gohua. The parties discussed current issues of bilateral cooperation, in particular, increasing the capacity of the Caspi Bitum plant from 1 million to 1.5 million tons per year, which will increase the production of road bitumen from 500,000 to 750,000 tons annually.
During the capacity expansion work at Caspi Bitum, bitumen production in Kazakhstan will continue, as other KMG enterprises are also involved in this sector, such as the Pavlodar Oil Refinery, where road bitumen production has been increased by 15 percent since January 2024. Additionally, private plants in the country also produce bitumen.
Special attention was given to the uninterrupted oil supply from KBM (Karazhanbasmunay, a subsidiary of KazMunayGas) to the Caspi Bitum plant. Issues related to the operation of the KBM Desalination Plant were also discussed, which reached its design capacity in August this year, producing 17,000 cubic meters of reservoir water per day.
To note, CITIC Construction Co. and CITIC Resources Holdings Limited are subsidiaries of CITIC Group. CITIC Construction specializes in implementing large construction projects both in China and abroad. CITIC Resources Holdings Limited, in turn, is engaged in the exploration, development, and extraction of oil and coal, as well as investments in bauxite mining, alumina processing, and aluminum production.