Source: Reuters, Montsame                 Date: 01 October, 2010

Marubeni Corp. has said it has joined Mongol Sekiyu, a local Mongolian government-backed firm, and Japan's Toyo Engineering Corp on a USD600-million project to build the first oil refinery in Mongolia. The refinery, slated to be up and running in autumn 2014 and located in Darkhan city about 200 km north of Ulaanbaatar, will help the country reduce its full dependence on imports of oil products from Russia.

Capacity is seen at an estimated 44,000 barrels of crude per day to produce 1 million tons of gas, 630,000 tons of gasoline and 60,000 tons of jet fuel, each per year, Japan's No.5 trading firm said. Marubeni would work with Toyo to build, maintain and operate the facility.

Marubeni said it plans to deliver oil to the refinery from Russia's Irkutsk Oil Co, which signed a comprehensive business pact with Marubeni in June on supplies. Crude supplies will also come from Kazakhstan. Mongolia, which sits on vast quantities of untapped mineral wealth, currently produces crude oil near the border with China for export to the neighboring nation via a pipeline.

At a meeting with Parliament Speaker D.Demberel in Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday, Mr. Eiji Okada of Marubeni said they intend to train Mongolians in skills that would be in demand at the refinery.