Maksat Proposes Small Refinery at Kochkor-Ata to Bring Fuel Closer to the South

TASH-KÖMÜR — Lieutenant Governor Aidar Maksat said on Friday that the government wants to build a second oil refinery at Kochkor-Ata, the Fergana rim market town of about 12,000 people in Lower Naryn District, to supply fuel to the southern districts.

Speaking at a meeting with local officials and residents in the district, Mr Maksat said the plant would process 450,000 tonnes a year, roughly 9,000 barrels a day. That is about a fifth of the 50,000 barrels a day handled by the Nurzhan Oil Refinery, Irad's only refinery. It would produce diesel, petrol and bitumen for the south.

"This is a plan to be studied, not a decision," the Lieutenant Governor told the meeting. "The south has waited a long time to hear that someone is looking at its fuel supply. We want to look at it properly, with the people who live here." Investors and the timetable have not been announced, and will be taken up as the study proceeds.

At present the southern districts draw their fuel from Nurzhan, about 600 km away by road and rail. Diesel sells at 6.10 som a litre at NurGaz stations, and at 8.55 to 9.75 som a litre in the Chatkal villages, where it travels farthest.

Residents at the meeting welcomed the idea. "A plant here would mean work for our sons close to home, and bitumen for the roads we keep asking for," said Abdulaziz Mirzaev, who owns two grain lorries in Kochkor-Ata. Alisher Kholmatov, head of the Lower Naryn District administration, said the district would offer officials' help with the study and with any questions from residents.

The proposal fits the government's recent push to bring investment and services to the districts outside the three cities, alongside the Nurzhan Compute Park and the Bazar-Korgon school programme. Further details are expected to be presented to the cabinet once the study is complete.