Belarus plans to process 3.9m tonnes of oil in Q4

“The government has adopted a number of regulations to support oil refineries. Due to these measures, oil refining capacities have been increasing since September. There are plans to process 3.9 million tonnes of oil in Q4 2022, up 1.4 million tonnes compared with Q3. Since January this year, a new delayed coker unit has been operating at Naftan in the commercial production mode. The launch of the unit helped increase the production of gasoline and diesel fuel meeting Euro-5 international standards by 400,000 tonnes since the beginning of the year with the simultaneous transition to a fuel-free oil refining scheme, which made it possible to achieve the oil refining depth of 92-93%. Since the start of the operation of the unit, 190,000 tonnes of a new product - petroleum coke - worth more than $12 million have been produced. Almost all of it has been sold to the Russian Federation,” Piotr Parkhomchik said.

Start-up operations at the complex for hydrocracking of heavy oil residues were resumed at Mozyr Oil Refinery in September, the deputy prime minister informed. “The work is at the final stage. The complex will reach the optimal technological regime at the end of this year. If the complex is fully loaded with raw materials, the additional output of light oil products from heavy oil residues will amount to up to 1.2 million tonnes per year. At the same time, the improvement of the basket of oil products is expected to increase the efficiency of the oil refinery as a whole,” he added.

“Measures have been taken to redirect the export of compound fertilizers to the Russian market, as well as to produce new brands that are not subject to restrictive measures,” said Piotr Parkhomchik. “Gomel Chemical Plant exported its products to the Russian market for the first time. In January-September 2022, $97 million worth of fertilizers were exported, despite the fact that this market has no deficit of products. Since April 2022, Belarusian potash fertilizers have been transshipped through the ports of the Russian Federation,” he said.