Output target as condition for Mozyr Oil Refinery’s privatization

Mozyr Oil Refinery will be sold to Russia for an increase of oil supplies.

Raising oil processing up to 20 million tonnes by 2020 is one of the conditions for the privatization of the Belarusian company Mozyr Oil Refinery by the Russian company Rosneft.

The information was released by Vice Premier of Belarus Piotr Prokopovich at the joint session of the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus on 20 December, BelTA has learned.

“We have forwarded the proposal — raise the oil processing volume up to 20 million tonnes by 2020 — to Rosneft as a condition of the possible privatization of Mozyr Oil Refinery,” said the Vice Premier. “We would like to process part of the oil shipped to Europe via Belarus and make products with a high added value and sell them on foreign markets and on the home market as import substitutes”.

According to Piotr Prokopovich, Rosneft said it needs time to think about the proposal: “I think they will make up their mind within one month. If they back our proposal, it will be a very large investment project (in addition to what we plan now as large as about $4.5 billion) and it will bring about a totally different state of affairs in economy in this area”.

The Vice Premier mentioned another project meant to address similar tasks — a project involving OAO Grodno Azot, which is being implemented with Gazprom’s participation.

According to Piotr Prokopovich, processing raw materials as much as possible will be a priority for the Belarus government.

Mozyr Oil Refinery was founded in 1975 and re-incorporated into a public joint-stock company (OAO) in 1994. The share of the State Property Committee of Belarus in the company’s authorized fund stands at 42.76%, that of NGK Slavneft 42.58%, Mozyr Oil Refinery Plus 12.25%, natural persons 2.41%. The company specializes in processing oil, manufacturing and selling oil products.