In its regular meeting, the government of Mongolia has made a decision to construct oil refineries which have the capability of processing 2.5 million tons of crude oil a year under a national goal of providing the domestic market with petroleum. This is not very first intention to build oil refineries. Mongolia experienced to exploit and process about 600 tons of oil in 1950-1960s at the oil deposit of Tsagaan Els.
It has been revealed Mongolia has about 250 million tons of oil. Although Mongolia exploits oil, the country still exports crude oil to foreign countries.
The matter on erection of the oil refineries has been postponed several times due to some reasons. According preliminary technical and economic feasibility, Khentii province’s Bor-Ondor soum has been selected to build the refineries because this location is close to oil deposits in eastern territory of Mongolia Choir, Sainshand, Bor-Ondor and Choibalsan, the infrastructure, the logistics of crude oil and final products as well as the market.
An investor consortium with national companies will be selected through a tender, therefore a legal landscape is being created to operate the refineries without political effects. In order to put control over this, the state is possible to issue golden stocks, Minister of Industry Erdenebat told the media.
It is planned to complete the oil refineries’ construction in four years. The refineries are projected to contribute to abolishing the country’s dependence on petroleum and augmenting the profit of external trade.