Chinese investors ask Tajik authorities to help them find consumers.
First Deputy Prime Minister of Tajikistan Davlatali Said expressed dissatisfaction with the idleness of a large oil refinery built on the territory of the “Dangara” Free Economic Zone.
«The enterprise, which was supposed to be commissioned back in 2018, is still not working», – said Davlatali Said on September 30 at a meeting of the Public-Private Partnership Council, which he chairs.
The First Deputy Prime Minister noted that all the necessary infrastructure has been created for the operation of this refinery: a power line, a railway line, water supply.
He instructed the relevant persons to take the necessary measures to launch the plant. Representatives of the Chinese company "TK-oil" who attended the event noted that the construction and equipment of the plant was fully completed. The main problem is the lack of a sales market for products.
Chinese investors asked the government to help them find consumers for the refinery's petroleum products. At the same time, the company representatives did not specify what exactly is meant by "lack of consumers".
Experts say that, most likely, we are talking about the fact that the products manufactured by this refinery are more expensive than the oil products imported by the republic.
Meanwhile, the other day, the administration of the FEZ "Dangara" said that the launch of the refinery built in this zone was postponed due to the lack of crude oil under acceptable conditions.
The FEZ administration noted that at the moment negotiations are underway regarding the supply of raw materials with companies from Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia.
The plant, with a design capacity of 1.2 million tons of oil per year, was built by the Chinese company Dong Ying heli Investment and Development, which is a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC).
