During a working trip to Atyrau region Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov familiarized with the development of industry in the region. Industrial companies, enterprises of oil and gas chemical sector were visited. The fulfillment of the President's instructions on diversification of the economy and departure from the raw material orientation of exports through the transition to deep processing, growth of domestic value of products has been checked.

Atyrau region is the leading region of the country in the field of oil and gas chemical industry. Up to 80% of oil reserves are concentrated here, the largest fields Tengiz and Kashagan are located. A large investment project on construction of a gas processing plant of "GPC INVESTMENT" LLP with a design capacity of about 1 billion cubic meters per year is currently being implemented at the latter. Head of the Government was informed that the works are carried out within the framework of the national program of processing of raw gas. To date, construction and installation works have been completed by 11%, while the overall readiness of the facility reaches 23%.

Olzhas Bektenov emphasized the importance of the project implemented by QazaqGaz together with Qatari investors. Commissioning of the plant will allow to send additional volumes of gas to the regions of the country. Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of Energy and QazaqGaz to accelerate the pace of construction of the plant with completion by the end of 2026.

Prime Minister was also informed about the plans of one of the largest enterprises of the oil and gas industry North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) to implement the project of construction of a pipeline, which will provide transportation of raw materials from the Kashagan field to the plant. Thus, today NCOC in cooperation with QazaqGaz is working on supplying up to 700 thousand tons of liquefied hydrocarbon gas per year to the market and completing the construction of the pipeline infrastructure, which will provide transportation of 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year. In turn, the Phase 2A project envisages transportation of 2.5 bcm of gas per year, and Phase 2B - 6 bcm. The implemented projects are also aimed at increasing domestic gas supplies in Kazakhstan.

Olzhas Bektenov visited the polypropylene plant of Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries Inc. LLP. The integrated gas chemical complex is the first project in the country to process raw materials from the Tengiz field with a capacity of 500 thousand tons of polypropylene per year. Since the launch of the plant 341.4 thousand tons of granulated polypropylene have been produced.

Head of the Government was reported that since the launch of the plant in 2022, the cost of polypropylene in Kazakhstan has been steadily decreasing from 650 thousand at the initial stage of the plant to the current 450 thousand tenge per ton. Today, according to Market Report, this is the lowest value compared to Russia, where the price reaches $1,280 per ton, Belarus $1,295 and Uzbekistan $1,090. The main task of the plant is to cover domestic needs. Thus, in 2022, the share of the plant KPI in the structure of the polypropylene market of Kazakhstan amounted to 2%, while imports reached 63%. By the second quarter of this year, the ratio has changed: the plant's share increased almost 25 times to 49%, imports decreased to 22%. Over the past 6 months, KPI produced 133 thousand tons of products, the plan for 2025 is 507 thousand tons of polypropylene. Kazakhstan's enterprise surpasses the production capacity of Uzbekistan 5 times (100 thousand tons), Turkey's 3.5 times (144 thousand tons), Turkmenistan's almost 3 times (171 thousand tons), Azerbaijan's 2.7 times (180 thousand tons).

"In the domestic market we should strive to ensure the realization of products at low cost. Our priority task is to support domestic producers. It is important that with your products small and medium-sized enterprises further develop. Therefore, finished products should be shipped to the domestic market in the first place, and the available surplus should be exported. We will have to pursue this policy more strictly, as the enterprise KPI plays an important role in the development of the economy of the whole country," Olzhas Bektenov noted.

At the plant the raw materials are deeply processed. Production of 10 grades of polypropylene, which are indispensable in the construction, medicine, automotive, food and textile industries, has been organized.

Within the framework of the visit to the enterprise for polypropylene production Head of the Government was presented the project of reconstruction of the highway "Dossor-Atyrau". The section of the highway of republican importance "Aktobe-Atyrau-Astrakhan" with the length of 86 km is proposed to expand to 4 lanes. Polypropylene produced at the KPI plant is used in road construction to increase strength and improve performance in general. Thus, the application of the plant's products is planned to be scaled up for the construction industry.

In Atyrau, Prime Minister familiarized himself with the current state and plans for the development of the oil refinery. The refinery with a design capacity of 5.5 million tons per year today produces up to 35 types of petroleum products. Over the past 7 months of the current year the volume of processing of raw materials amounted to 3.4 million tons.

At Atyrau Refinery Prime Minister familiarized with the technological process of production of aromatic hydrocarbons and deep oil refining. These complexes were built during the three-stage modernization in the period from 2003 to 2018, which allowed to launch the production of benzene and paraxylene, to bring the quality of fuel to the environmental class K4/K5, to increase the depth of refining to 90%. Taking into account the upcoming fall field work, Prime Minister instructed to ensure stable production and shipment of diesel fuel for agricultural producers in full.

"At the end of the half-year we see a decrease in oil production by 1.6%. At the same time, we are growing in other sectors of the economy. Steady growth remains in the manufacturing industry, at the end of 6 months the indicator is at the level of 5.1%. The volume of construction works increased by 8.6%, transportation and warehousing - by 7.3%, information and communication - 8.7%. The country's economy should develop with a focus on manufacturing industry, moving away from commodity dependence," Olzhas Bektenov emphasized.

In terms of sectors of manufacturing industry, the growth of production in machine building by 9.4%, production of metal products by 30.3%, chemical industry by 5.3% has been provided.

Prime Minister was also presented plans for further modernization of the oil refinery. Special attention was paid to environmental issues to reduce the impact on the air, groundwater, flora and fauna. Within the framework of the Tazalyk project, developed on the instructions of the Head of State, the reconstruction of mechanical treatment facilities and the channel of normative-treated effluents, as well as reclamation of evaporation fields are envisaged. Part of the work has been completed to date. Thus, as a result of reconstruction the efficiency of wastewater treatment has reached 96%, the content of oil products does not exceed 25 mg/l. On the evaporation fields 431 hectares of land have been reclaimed. In general, in the region, taking into account the development of oil refining, a set of measures is being taken to stabilize the environmental situation, reported the akim of Atyrau region Serik Shapkenov. In particular, treatment facilities have been reconstructed, by 2025 landfills will be fully brought into compliance with sanitary requirements.

On the example of the plant "Zhigermunayservice" Prime Minister familiarized with the pace of development of machine building industry in the region. Today the share of manufacturing industry in the region is about 10%. At the same time, the machine-building industry, taking into account the local specifics, provides goods and services mainly for oil and gas activities.

Thus, "Zhigermunayservice" is one of the main enterprises in Kazakhstan for the production of innovative products for oil production and processing, as well as a leader in drilling services. A promising area for development is the production of equipment for enterprises in the mining sector. To date, the plant has already launched production of drilling tools for drilling and blasting operations, reported Eldar Baibolov, director of Zhigermunayservice.

The enterprise has a powerful production potential, including service, metal-cutting, forging, welding equipment, 10 thousand highly qualified employees. In this regard, Olzhas Bektenov emphasized the need to scale production and increase capacity to cover domestic market needs.

#Olzhas Bektenov #The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan #Economy #Industry #Manufacturing industry #Oil & Gas #Regions #Working trip