MINSK, 28 October (BelTA) – Prospects of development of the national petrochemical industry were outlined by Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Nazarov during a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus in the Oval Hall of the House of Government on 28 October, BelTA has learned.
Yuri Nazarov said: “In conditions of the pressure of sanctions the diversification of the current product portfolio towards making new petrochemical products is the only feasible strategy to preserve the competitive ability and the steady operation of the Belarusian oil refining industry. In view of these goals we've decided in favor of building a new ethylene-propylene installation at the Polymir plant. The installation is supposed to be built in this five-year term. A tender is being organized. We hope that our Chinese partners will participate in the tender because these technologies are well-developed in China.”
In his words, the commissioning of major deep oil conversion installations at Belarusian oil refineries – a heavy oil hydrocracking complex at Mozyr Oil Refinery and a delayed coking plant at Naftan – will also improve the effectiveness of oil refining. Unfortunately, the construction of these facilities is past deadlines. At the same time these facilities are supposed to make commercial products in Q1 2022.
“The construction of the Gomel-Gorki main oil pipeline 207km long is in progress for the sake of establishing alternative oil deliveries to Belarus. As for major chemical projects I'd like to mention the construction of a new nitrogen complex,” the deputy prime minister added. Grodno Azot is upgrading the existing facilities meanwhile.
“A mining and process complex to make potash fertilizers on the basis of the Petrikovskoye deposit with the output capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum has been commissioned this year. A complex based on the Nezhinsky section of the Starobinskoye deposit with the output capacity of up to 2 million tonnes will be commissioned in the next few years,” the official stated.
