Mongolia plans to have oil refinery. Speaking to the media past week Minister of Industry Mr Erdenebat said that the government issued a resolution on building oil refineries capable to process 2 million tons of crude oil. Erdenebat: Building oil refineries is the biggest strategic goal of Mongolia. The Government of Mongolia has the other day issued a resolution to construct oil refineries based on domestic reserves, says Mongolian Minister of Industry Mr Erdenebat.

A working group is to be established to do a technical and economical feasibility study and environmental evaluation of the planned oil refinery project in eastern and Gobi regions and by next autumn the project proposals will be made to interested investors. Thus Mongolia would be able to save 1.5 billion USD spent annually on petroleum import which constitute 28% of Mongolian import. According to unofficial statistics, Mongolia has got 200 billion tons of oil reserves which are enough to domestically process crude oil to meet its increasing demand and to build accompanying industries. Presently, 16 companies conduct oil prospecting in 18 fields under product sharing agreement and new product sharing agreements are planned to be concluded this year on 8 more fields.