MOSCOW (MRC) -- Belarusian oil refineries have lost USD80 million due to European Union sanctions, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Nazarov was quoted as saying last week, reported Reuters.
State news agency Belta also quoted him as telling parliament that despite the sanctions, local refineries would process 16.8 million tonnes of oil this year, an increase of 0.5 million tonnes compared with 2020.
The European Union in June banned companies from doing business with Belarusian oil products as a part of wide-ranging economic sanctions on Belarus, cutting one of the top fuel suppliers in Eastern Europe from the market.
As MRC informed previously, in 2015, the US Treasury Department suspended sanctions against nine Belarusian companies and issued a license to cooperate with them, which was renewed annually.
Earlier it was also reported that at the beginning of 2020, the state concern Belneftekhim approved a strategy for the development of the petrochemical complex for the period until 2030. Among the priority projects is the construction of a new pyrolysis unit at Polymir. The corporate publication of the concern noted that "an ethylene-propylene unit will be built at the Polymir plant, this will allow to fully provide the existing production with raw materials." The capacity of pyrolysis, as well as the timing of its construction, are not given. The development plan of the petrochemical complex of the Republic of Bashkortostan also includes a project for the production of ABS plastics, which is planned to be implemented on the basis of the Naftan oil refinery. In addition, it is planned to launch polycarbonate production capacity at the refinery.
OJSC "Naftan" is one of the largest oil refineries in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Commissioned in 1963, the enterprise was incorporated in 2002. The state share in OJSC "Naftan" is 99.83%, the rest of the shares belong to the individual employees of the enterprise. In 2008, a large petrochemical enterprise Polymir was included in Naftan. Naftan produces more than 70 types of products, including various types of fuel, lubricating oils and bitumen, aromatic hydrocarbons and petrochemical products. The company exports 70% of its products, mainly to the CIS countries and the European Union.
MRC