India ramps up support for new Mongolian refinery
The government of India is extending an additional US$236-million line of credit to the government of Mongolia for the country’s first refinery project now under construction on 150 hectares in Altanshiree Soum near Sainshand in the south-eastern province of Dornogovi.
The new line of credit comes on top of India’s earlier US$1-billion soft credit line to Mongolia in May 2015 for the new refinery, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan said on the 8th October during a visit to Mongolia.
The announcement follows the government of Mongolia’s award – through wholly owned Mongol Refinery State Owned LLC – of a contract to India’s state-owned Engineers India Ltd (EIL) for delivery of project management consultancy services for construction of the 30,100-b/d grassroots refinery.
EIL also delivered a detailed feasibility study for the project.
The new refinery comes as part of India’s effort to develop further ties with landlocked Mongolia and help reduce its energy dependence on neighbouring China and Russia.
Scheduled to be completed by yearend 2022, the refinery will process Mongolia’s own shale crude production currently exported to China to produce 560,000 tonnes/year of gasoline, 670,000 tpy of diesel, and 107,000 tpy of liquefied gas for domestic use, helping to reduce the country’s finished product imports from Russia.
Source: Oil & Gas Journal