Beria Oversaw It, Americans Supplied Equipment: Kazakhstan’s First Oil Refinery
Exactly 79 years ago, on September 8, 1945, Plant No. 441 (now the Atyrau Oil Refinery) produced Kazakhstan’s first batch of gasoline. At the time, its capacity was just 800,000 tons of oil per year…
Exactly 79 years ago, on September 8, 1945, Plant No. 441 (now the Atyrau Oil Refinery) produced the first batch of gasoline in Kazakhstan. At the time, it had capacity to process only 800,000 tons of oil a year. The plant was built using American equipment delivered through Lend-Lease and under the direct supervision of NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria.
The decision to build Kazakhstan’s first refinery was made in 1943, during World War II. The front needed fuel. The State Defense Committee issued Resolution No. 3181-sso to build oil refining capacity in the eastern regions of the USSR.
“Set the site for construction of Plant No. 441 in the city of Guryev, Kazakh SSR. I assign overall supervision to the NKVD, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria. Chairman of the State Defense Committee Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin,” the resolution stated.
Every available resource was mobilized for this strategic facility. The technical design came from the American company Badger and Sons, while engineers at Embaneftproekt adapted it to local conditions.
“A February 9, 1945 article in Pravda, citing Roosevelt’s report to Congress, stated that from April 1, 1941, when the Lend-Lease Act came into operation, until June 30, 1944, the United States supplied equipment, materials, and services worth $28.3 billion, or 15% of total US spending on military needs and defense.
Deliveries to the USSR amounted to $5.9 billion, or 21% of supplies to the Allies. These shipments included process equipment for the Guryev, Orsk, Krasnovodsk, and Kuibyshev refineries,” reads a book by Vladimir Gafner, director of the Atyrau refinery from 1986 to 1999.
On September 8, 1945, the Guryev refinery produced its first product: automotive gasoline. The State Commission designated this date as the start of the Kazakh SSR’s oil refining industry. The plant was designed to process 800,000 tons of Emba oil per year and produced aviation and automotive gasoline, motor fuel, and boiler fuel.
Today, the Atyrau refinery is one of Kazakhstan’s three major refineries, alongside plants in Pavlodar and Shymkent. National company KazMunayGas owns 99% of its shares. The refinery can process up to 5.5 million tons of crude oil per year into various fuels and petrochemical products.
Source: https://www.lada.kz/