ASTANA — Kazakhstan’s manufacturing industry saw a steady growth of 5.1% in the first six months of 2024, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said during his working trip to the Atyrau Region on Aug. 2 to review the progress made on President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s instructions regarding the development of the oil, gas, chemical, and industrial sectors.
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Manufacturing industry
In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s press service, Bektenov noted that despite a 1.6% decrease in oil production, other sectors of the economy showed positive growth. The volume of construction works increased by 8.6%, transportation and warehousing by 7.3%, and information and communication by 8.7%. Machine building saw a production increase of 9.4%, metal products surged by 30.3%, and the chemical industry grew by 5.3%.
Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov during his working trip to the Atyrau Region on Aug. 2. Photo credit:primeminister.kz
During his visit to the Zhigermunayservice plant, a leading enterprise in innovative oil production and processing technologies, the Prime Minister observed the machine-building sector’s development in the Atyrau Region. The plant, which employs around 10,000 highly qualified workers, plays a crucial role in the region’s manufacturing industry, which accounts for approximately 10% of the local economy. Zhigermunayservice has recently expanded into producing equipment for the mining sector, including drilling tools for drilling and blasting operations.
Oil and gas sector
A significant investment project is underway at the Kashagan oilfield, where GPC Investment is constructing a gas processing plant with a design capacity of around one billion cubic meters per year.
Bektenov urged the Ministry of Energy and QazaqGaz to expedite the implementation of a joint project with Qatar and complete it by the end of 2026. The plant will help increase gas supplies across Kazakhstan.
North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) is working on a project to build a pipeline to transport raw materials from Kashagan to the new plant. In collaboration with QazaqGaz, NCOC puts efforts into supplying up to 700,000 tons of liquefied hydrocarbon gas per year to the market and completing the construction of the pipeline infrastructure, which will provide transportation of one billion cubic meters of gas annually. The Phase 2A project envisages transportation of 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and Phase 2B – six billion cubic meters.
Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries’ polypropylene plant produced 133,000 tons of products and plans to increase production to 507,000 tons by 2025. The plant’s products are expected to be used more widely in the construction industry, including the proposed expansion of the Aktobe-Atyrau-Astrakhan highway to four lanes.
Focus on environment
At the Atyrau Oil Refinery, 3.4 million tons of raw materials were processed over the past seven months. As part of the region’s efforts to stabilize the environmental situation, a set of measures have been implemented to improve oil refining processes. These include achieving 96% efficiency in wastewater treatment and reclaiming 431 hectares of evaporation fields. The refinery has also reduced the concentration of oil products in treated water to below 25 milligrams per liter.
