Shymkent oil refinery completes maintenance before schedule

PetroKazakhstan Oil Products LLP (PKOP), also known as the Shymkent refinery, has completed the overhaul it started on March 15, according to KazMunayGaz, the national oil company that controls the factory.

«On April 7, Shymkent refinery completed preventive maintenance, which was expected to last from March 15 to April 8 this year. However, the PKOP has managed to complete the maintenance one day before the deadline and the facility has already started its operations,» the oil company said in a statement.

In April, the oil refinery is expected to process 366,000 tons of crude oil and produce 110,100 tons of gasoline, 114,800 tons of diesel, 15,100 tons of liquefied oil gas and 77,600 tons of heating oil.

The PKOP never stopped its operation last year and hit the record with 6.2 million tons of oil processed within the year (the current capacity of the refinery is six million tons per year). Now, the country’s government is going to increase the Shymkent oil refinery capacity to nine to twelve tons of oil products per year.

On April 6, motorists reported that diesel fuel was available only by coupons in the Turkestan region. In Almaty, people have been reporting shortages of diesel fuel since April 3. Some gas stations even introduced limits for diesel in order to fill demand from bus companies and utility services.

On April 5, Almaty authorities said that there were 8,800 tons of diesel fuel in the city and they would expect 4,700 more tons of diesel in five days. There are 213 gas stations in the city and 176 of them (82%) are run by six large fuel companies.

All these problems with diesel fuel supply followed the Shymkent oil refinery’s temporary stoppage working on March 15 due to maintenance.

The refinery accounts for 40% of the diesel fuel supply to Almaty, followed by the Pavlodar oil refinery (35%) and the Atyrau oil refinery (25%).

In February, the country’s Energy Ministry announced that the preventive maintenance at the Shymkent refinery would last from March 15 to April 13. The agency also said that one of the scenarios is a shortage of 700,000 tons of diesel that might be imported from Russia.