PetroKazakhstan Oil Products LLP, a joint venture of state-owned KazMunaiGas (KMG) and China National Petroleum Corp., has let a services-related contract to China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp. (CPECC) for a long-delayed project to upgrade the 5.25 million tonne/year Shymkent refinery in Kazakhstan.
Under the agreement, CPECC will provide the detailed engineering, procurement of equipment and materials, and implementation of construction and installation work for the modernization of the Shymkent facility (OGJ Online, Oct. 3, 2012), according to KMG.
Implementation of the First Startup Complex includes construction of a naphtha isomerization unit with a capacity of 600,000 tpy, which will reduce environmental impacts by enhancing the high-octane gasoline production process to meet the latest requirements set by Kazakhstan law, KMG said.
Construction of the naptha isomerization unit is planned for completion in 2015, with product delivery scheduled for 2016, according to KMG.
PetroKazakhstan previously let a contract for front-end engineering design of the modernization project at Shymkent in 2012 designed to expand the plant’s crude processing capacity to 6 million tpy from 5 million tpy (OGJ Online, Sept. 27, 2012).
