SOUTH KAZAKHSTAN REGION – Gazprom Neft and the Committee of Roads of the Kazakhstan Ministry of Transport and Communications recently signed a memorandum of cooperation to facilitate the production of quality bituminous materials using advanced technologies. The new production will meet modern Kazakh, Russian and international industry, industrial safety and environmental standards.
The memorandum opened Gazpromneft-Bitumen Kazakhstan LLP and was signed by Director of Commercial Department of Gazprom Neft Levan Kadagidze and Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Roads Amangeldy Bekov.
“It is an important strategic step for us. We want to supply products required for Kazakh roads. This is the beginning of further cooperation,” Kadagidze said.
The memorandum also includes the supply of road bitumen to Gazpromneft-Bitumen Kazakhstan for its use in road construction and repair. It is also aimed at information exchange about the needs of the industry in high-quality bituminous materials, joint work on improvement of product quality and the system of production and transportation of bituminous materials for the road sector of Kazakhstan.
The memorandum was signed at the plant in the Tolebi district of South Kazakhstan oblast. At the opening ceremony, Vice Minister of Transport and Communications Mereke Pshembayev noted that Kazakhstan is implementing a number of major road construction projects, which means that bitumen consumption is growing annually.
The opening of the enterprise will change the competitive requirements for the quality of bitumen and introduce modern technologies for its production.
Gaspromneft-Bitumen Kazakhstan is one of the largest bitumen producers in Central Asia. Last year, it produced over 50,000 tonnes of output while this year it will make about 135,000 tonnes. Since 2013, the owner of the plant has been Gazprom Neft. The company intends to invest 160 million tenge (US$880,000) for further modernisation of the enterprise and to increase production capacity to 285,000 tonnes.
General Director of Gazpromneft-Bitumen Kazakhstan Viktor Pavlichev said the plant is a new technological complex, commissioned in 2011 and designed to produce a wide range of materials for road construction, meeting Kazakh and Russian quality standards. The plant employs 85 specialists and most of them are locals.
In the near future, the LLP is planning to supply bituminous materials to the remote regions of the country in packaged form and in 200-litre drums. It is expected that this will increase the demand for the products.
