BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20. Kazakhstan’s Minister of Energy, Erlan Akkenzhenov, has instructed contractors to accelerate construction work at the Zhanaozen gas processing plant.
This is reflected in the recent statement of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.
According to the Ministry, during a visit to the Mangystau region, the minister reviewed the progress of construction at the facility and assessed the current stage of implementation.
The ministry notes that the project is being implemented under a 36-month engineering, procurement, and construction contract. However, after 29 months, which accounts for 81% of the scheduled period, the overall construction readiness of the plant stands at around 40%.
Moreover, the ministry announced that the main delays are related to construction and installation works. The completion level of these works is currently 13%, while concrete works remain below planned volumes, with 7,500 cubic meters completed out of the planned 58,400 cubic meters.
"Delays in the delivery of technological equipment also persist. Of the 259 items ordered from foreign manufacturers, only 98 have been shipped. As a result, contractors have been instructed to expedite equipment delivery, strengthen cooperation with foreign manufacturers, and expand modular assembly capacity in Kazakhstan," the statement says.
Following the inspection, Akkenzhenov instructed the project management team to strengthen coordination with equipment suppliers and take measures to increase the pace of construction.
The Ministry of Energy noted that the state client has fulfilled its financial obligations under the project, including providing advance payments to contractors. Additional personnel and equipment are expected to be deployed at the site, with the workforce planned to reach 1,200 specialists during the peak construction period.
Once completed, the Zhanaozen gas processing plant will have a designed capacity of processing 900 million cubic meters of raw gas per year. The facility is expected to produce 743 million cubic meters of treated gas, 217,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and 122,000 tons of pentane-hexane fractions annually. The ministry has introduced weekly reporting procedures to monitor the progress of construction. The plant’s commissioning is currently scheduled for 2027.
