The government of Kazakhstan has launched a major expansion of its oil refining industry. The plan involves increasing capacity at three of the country's largest refineries and exploring the construction of a new plant, reports infohub.kz.
According to the government, oil production in 2025 increased by 13.5% to 99.6 million tons. Output for 2026 is planned at 98 million tons. In the first half of this year, the country produced 45.7 million tons of oil and processed 8.985 million tons.
Last year, Kazakhstan's refineries processed 18.4 million tons of oil. This year, expansion of three key facilities begins. The capacity of the Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant is set to increase from 5.5 million to 9 million tons per year, the Shymkent refinery from 6 million to 12 million tons, and the Atyrau refinery from 5.5 million to 6.7 million tons.
Additionally, authorities have begun studying a project for a new refinery with a capacity of 10 million tons per year. The government said that four existing bitumen plants already produce 1.66 million tons annually, enough to fully cover domestic demand for road construction bitumen.
The expansion of refining capacity comes amid a difficult situation in the fuel market of neighboring Russia. In recent months, Russian refining has faced output declines due to damage to plants and unscheduled shutdowns, leading to fuel shortages on the domestic market.
Furthermore, the government reported positive trends in the gas sector. In 2025, natural gas production rose 15% to 68.2 billion cubic meters. In January-June 2026, the country produced 31.9 billion cubic meters of gas, and the gasification rate of settlements is expected to reach 64.3% by year-end.
Earlier, drones attacked two tankers while loading Kazakh oil at the CPC terminal.