DUSHANBE, September 20, Asia-Plus – Issues related to construction of an oil refinery in the Danghara Free Economic Zone (FEZ Danghara) have been discussed here at a meeting of Tajik Prime Minister Qohir Rasoulzoda with Mr. Zhao Zhengzhang, Vice-President of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

The sides reportedly discussed the process of implementation of the project for construction of the oil refinery in Danghara, Khatlon province.

The enterprise with refining capacity of 1.2 million tons per year is expected to be introduced into operation at the end of 2015.

We will recall that Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and China’s Ambassador to Tajikistan Fan Xianrong attended a groundbreaking ceremony for construction of Tajik-Chinese joint oil refinery on March 23 and an agreement on construction of the oil refinery in the Danghara Free Economic Zone (FEZ) was signed in Dushanbe on April 2.

According to the State Committee on Investment and State-owned Property Management (GosKomInvest) press center, the estimated budget for the first stage of the project is more than 60 million USD and the cost of the second stage of the project is more than 300-500 million USD.

At the first stage, the enterprise’s refining capacity will be 500 tons per year and 200 new jobs will be created.

During the second stage, the enterprise’s refining capacity will be increased to 1.2 million tons and the number of working places will be brought to 500.