ASTANA, Kazakhstan, January 30. KazMunayGas JSC (KMG, Kazakhstan's national oil and gas company) and Chinese CITIC Resources Holdings Limited have agreed to begin the construction phase of the project to expand the capacity of the Aktau bitumen plant (CASPI BITUM), Trend reports.
The corresponding agreement was reached during a meeting between the Chairman of the Board of KMG Magzum Mirzagaliyev and the Chairman of the Board of CITIC Hao Weibao.
The project is currently in the design stage. Thus, the parties agreed to begin the construction phase before the end of 2024, with completion of construction at the beginning of 2025.
Mirzagaliyev noted that for the successful implementation of the project, KazMunayGas last week signed an agreement on supplying the domestic market with road bitumen with KazAvtoZhol JSC (Kazakhstan's national company).
Meanwhile, the shareholders of the Aktau bitumen plant, KazMunayGas JSC 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).