ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 3. Kazakhstan’s refinery throughput reached 375,000 barrels per day in 2025, up from 364,000 barrels per day in 2024, marking a 3% increase.
Data obtained by Trend from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) indicates that this reflects a generally stable upward trend in refining activity, compared to 368,000 barrels per day in 2023, 364,000 in 2022, and 349,000 in 2021, pointing to a gradual recovery and optimization of refining capacities in recent years.
Kazakhstan’s oil refining sector is centered on three major facilities, the Atyrau Oil Refinery, the Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant, and the Shymkent Oil Refinery, which together process up to around 18 million tons of crude oil per year and play a key role in supplying the domestic fuel market. The sector has undergone extensive modernization in recent years aimed at increasing processing depth and transitioning to more environmentally friendly fuel standards.
Modernization has significantly expanded capacity, with motor fuel processing rising from about 14 to 17 million tons per year. Projects include new aromatic hydrocarbon production facilities at the Atyrau Refinery (up to 496,000 tons of paraxylene and 133,000 tons of benzene annually) and an increase in Shymkent Refinery capacity to 6 million tons.
Meanwhile, future plans include doubling Shymkent Refinery capacity to 12 million tons, expanding the Pavlodar Refinery to 8 million tons, and constructing a new oil refinery with a capacity of about 10 million tons by 2030–2033.