Russia to establish oil refinery in Kohat

ISLAMABAD: Russian companies on Wednesday officially agreed with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil & Gas Company Limited (KPOGCL) to bring investment to the country and establish a medium-sized oil refinery in district Kohat of KP province. 

To this effect, the two Russian Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) contractor companies i.e. Inter Rao Engineering and HIMMASH APPARAT signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the KPOGCL here. 

A visiting delegation of Russian investors from these companies held a meeting with the KPOGCL’s CEO Razi Uddin and other senior officials and showed keen interest in the project, as the province is the leading province of the country in production of crude oil/condensate production. 

The visiting delegation was headed by Yaroslav Gavrylendo, Advisor to CEO Inter Rao Engineering and Narovlyanski Alexander, head of export of HIMMASH APPARAT, to discuss the way forward on the project with the provincial oil and gas company.

Razi Uddin Razi said that Letters of Intent (LoI) have already been issued by Russian investors through their consortium to the KP government and they are keen to take this project into the next phase. These companies have agreed to bring investment to the country and establish the refinery in Kohat district, CEO Razi Uddin told The News. 

KPOGCL is playing an active role as facilitator, de-briefed the investors on financial & technical aspects of the project. KP Government is fulfilling their responsibility for providing investors with one window stop shop facility assuring full cooperation to visiting delegation.

As per the MoU terms, interested group will execute detailed feasibility for this project. KPOGCL also arranged a detailed site visit to the Russian delegation to district Kohat and showed the potential site for setting up the crude/condensate refinery. 

The delegation lauded the efforts of KPOGCL for facilitating new investors in the region on fast track basis and assured to take this project forward subject to their approval from Russia to enter Pakistan’s market.