DUSHANBE (TCA) — Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon on March 24 officially launched the Naftrason oil refinery in the city of Konibodom in the Sughd province, the president’s press service said.
It is the first oil refinery in Tajikistan.
The enterprise has been created with the support of domestic entrepreneurs and foreign investors with a total of US $3.5 million.
The annual processing capacity of the refinery is 70 thousand tons of crude oil, and it will produce finished products worth 70 million somoni annually.
The new refinery has employed 80 people, whose average monthly salary is two thousand somoni ($1=7.8 somoni).
LLC Naftrason will produce gasoline, diesel, liquefied gas, and fuel oil.
The refinery will process mainly imported crude, including from Kazakhstan.
The Tajik government earlier said that by 2020 Tajikistan is to meet more than half of the country’s need for motor fuel with oil products produced by domestic oil refineries.
By that time, Tajikistan is to complete construction of several new refineries.
Last year China’s Dong Ying Heli Investment and Development Co. Ltd started the construction of an oil refinery in the Danghara Free Economic Zone (FEZ) in Tajikistan.
The project consists of two stages. In the first stage, worth over $160 million, the refinery’s capacity will be 500 thousand tons of crude oil per year, and in the second stage, worth over $300 million, it will reach 1.2 million tons.
The Chinese company had already signed contracts with partners in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Russia on the delivery of crude oil to Danghara refinery, whose construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
Tajikistan’s need for motor fuel is estimated at 1.6 million tons a year.
The country currently relies on imports, mainly from Russia, to meet domestic fuel needs.
