On January 30, 2014 in Almaty PetroKazakhstan Oil Products LLP (owned on a parity basis by NC KazMunaiGas JSC and CNPC) and Chinese company CPECC entered into the contract for the detailed engineering, procurement of equipment and materials and implementation of construction and installation work (EPC contract), as part of PKOP’s transition to practical implementation of the Shymkent Refinery Modernization Project.

The Naphtha Isomerization Unit is being constructed at PKOP LLP in accordance with the Complex Development Plan of Oil Refineries of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as within the framework of the RK State Program for Forced Industrial and Innovative Development. Implementation of the First Startup Complex includes construction of the Naphtha Isomerization Unit with a capacity of 600 thousand tons a year, which will allow reducing an environmental impact by enhancing the high-octane gasoline production process and applying up-to-date technologies in operations. It is expected that by doing so PKOP will make a transition to production of top-quality and safe high-octane gasoline meeting environmental classes K4 and K5 as per requirements of the Customs Union Technical Regulation as early as in 2016.

– The licensor company (UOP) stated that the Isomerization Unit designed for the Shymkent Refinery is technology intensive and meets the latest requirements of the world standards, Asylbek Karibayev, First Vice President, PKOP LLP, noted.

The completion of the Naptha Isomerization Unit construction is planned for 2015.