Marubeni
Corp will collaborate with Mongol Sekiyu, a Mongolian 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.