The Kazakhstan government has proposed the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers to build a new oil refinery for processing around 3 million tons of oil annually.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to Ukraine Amangeldy Zhumabayev disclosed this in an interview to Delo daily today.

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“We are interested to create an oil refinery together with Ukraine. This issue is particularly pressing considering Ukraine’s joining WTO in the nearest future”, he noted.

According to the information of the daily, the joint oil refinery project will be one of the topical issues on the agenda of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s visit to Ukraine, scheduled for 2 February 2007.

The Ukraine’s Fuel-Energy Ministry’s press-service confirmed that the Kazakh side proposed to launch a joint investment project. “We welcome the investments to Ukraine. But the state will not participate in building the plant. Our stance is that it must be a non-state commercial project”, Ministry’s spokesman Mykhaylo Hryshchenko disclosed.

Experts believe that building a new oil refinery will take two years and nearly 8 billion dollars. The new plant will be directed, first of all, at the European markets.