ASTANA, Kazakhstan, November 9. Kazakhstan's Aktau bitumen plant, CASPI BITUM, processed 703,457 tons of oil or 88 percent of the initial plan from January through September 2023, Trend reports.
According to KazMunayGas JSC (national oil and gas company), during this period, 294,186 tons of road bitumen were produced, or 74 percent of the plan (for the same period in 2022, 348,134 tons of bitumen were produced).
Since the beginning of 2023, 288,645 tons of road bitumen have been shipped from the plant to the regions of Kazakhstan.
Based on the results of nine months, the leaders in the consumption of road bitumen produced at the Aktau bitumen plant are Almaty region - 14.1 percent, Mangistau region - 11.7 percent and Zhambyl region - 11.3 percent of the total shipment volume.
It was previously reported that the shareholders of the Aktau bitumen plant, KazMunayGas JSC (KMG, Kazakhstan's national company) and Chinese CITIC, plan to increase the refining capacity of the enterprise from 1 to 1.5 million tons of oil per year.
The parties confirmed their intentions and signed an Agreement of Understanding.
The agreement will allow increasing the production of road bitumen at the enterprise from the current 500,000 to 750,000 tons per year. This is planned to be achieved by upgrading the existing crude oil primary processing unit (ELOU-AVT).
The project implementation period is 2023-2024.