Government seeks to accelerate energy projects
On June 22, the Mongolian oil refinery construction project has been launched in Altanshiree soum of Dornogovi Province.
Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh and India’s Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh attended the ground breaking ceremony of the refinery.
During his opening remarks, U.Khurelsukh expressed his sincere appreciation on behalf of the government and people of Mongolia and himself to the government and people of India for making a great contribution to Mongolia to build this refinery.
The prime minister said, “As a construction project of a refinery with a processing capacity of 1.5 million tons of crude oil per year has been launched, we write a new chapter in the history of the nation’s industrial development through this project.”
He underlined that as a refinery with significant strategic importance is being built, the country’s economy will become independent from energy imports, and fuel and commodity prices will stabilize.
U.Khurelsukh said, “For over a decade, the governments of Mongolia tried to build an oil refinery many times and even broke grounds. Unfortunately, none have been completed due to financial issues.
But thanks to this friendly and valuable assistance from India, Mongolians have an opportunity to start building this refinery, and I and Mongolians have no doubt that the project will be successfully implemented.”
The prime minister added, “Despite not sharing borders geographically, both countries are spiritual neighbors in many ways, which is why India supports the development of Mongolia.”
He stated that the current reserve estimation is enough to domestically supply fuel for more than 40 years and is expected to increase in the future, and the government will focus on increasing the nation’s oil reserve by increasing investment for oil exploration.
Indian Minister Singh said, "Mongolia is not only a strategic partner for India but also a spiritual neighbor because of the common Buddhist heritage. I am confident that the project will push bilateral relations and cooperation to a new level and certainly be a milestone in the history of the bilateral ties."
The Indian minister underlined that if the two countries closely cooperate with each other to address challenging issues facing the project on a timely basis, the refinery will be built within the scheduled date, which is why a strong collaboration for implementing the project is crucial.
He added that as the refinery is a joint cooperation project, India will make as much efforts as they can in making the project successful and underlined that he hopes Mongolia will also make more efforts to carry out this megaproject successfully.
Some seniors who attended the ceremony said that the ground breaking ceremony of the refinery is a historic and long-awaited moment for Mongolians after the nation’s first petroleum refining factory closed in 1967.
A small petroleum refining factory was built with assistance of the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, and it supplied 30 percent of the country’s fuel demand at the time, while meeting the entire demand for gasoline and diesel fuel of southern provinces. But this factory was closed in 1967 as cost of producing fuel at the factory was double the price of imported fuel from the Soviet Union, which had just discovered a substantial oil reserve in the western Siberian region.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh attended the opening ceremony of the new solar power plant with capacity of 15 megawatts in Sainshand soum of Dornogovi Province last week.
The premier highlighted that two other solar power plants with a capacity of producing 30 megawatts and 20 megawatts of electricity each will be put into operation by the end of this year in the province, and a wind farm with a total capacity of 55 megawatts is scheduled to open in late 2018 near Sainshand, the capital of the province.
During the opening ceremony, Minister of Energy Ts.Davaasuren emphasized that the nation's renewable energy capacity was nearly doubled last year, reaching 155 megawatts. The first large solar power plant with a capacity of 10 megawatts was installed in Darkhan-Uul Province last year, and the second wind farm with a capacity of 50 megawatts was also opened last year.
The minister underlined that as Mongolia's Gobi has significant renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy, the government targets to reach a 30 percent share of renewable energy in the nation’s energy consumption by 2030.