Bashkiria President: Bashkiria has highly developed energy complex

Interregional and international integration is essential for the economic development of Bashkiria. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this was announced yesterday by President of Bashkiria Murtaz Rakhimov in a speech he gave to participants at the IV Congress of Russian oil and gas industrialists and the XI international exhibition Gas. Oil

Mr Rakhimov said Bashkiria now has a highly developed energy complex which includes the leading Russian oil-extracting and oil-refining enterprises, the production of petrochemical goods, energy and the transportation of oil, oil products and gas. He stressed that the republic refines more oil than anywhere else in Russia and holds third place in terms of oil extraction. One seventh of Russian oil is refined in Bashkiria and Bashkir oil refineries work at a greater depth than any other refineries in Russia. The oil refineries in the Bashkir Autonomous Republic are capable of refining over 60 million tonnes of oil a year and provide one third of total national production of high quality petrol, more than half of Russian butyl and isobutyl spirits and a fifth of all caustic soda, polyethylene, artificial resin, plastics and synthetic rubber.

'The oil industry has been and still remains the basis of our economic development,' Mr Rakhimov emphasized. He called on participants at the congress to expand their business ties and he wished them success in their work and in making new acquaintances and new profitable contracts which 'will enable the oil and gas industry to develop and encourage the overall economic growth of Russia.'

The IV Congress of Russian oil and gas industrialists and the XI international exhibition Gas.Oil are being held in Ufa on May 20 to May 23. They are being organised by the Russian Energy Ministry, the Union of Russian Oil and Gas Industrialists, the Russian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Bashkir government and Chamber of Industry and Commerce, exhibition centre RID and others.