ArmInfo.Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan is forming an interdepartmental group to study the possibilities of launching the Armoil petrochemical plant in the Nati district of the city of Yeghvard in the Kotayk region of the republic.
According to Pashinyan's decision of July 27, posted on the official website of the government, in accordance with part 5 of article 7 of the "Law on the structure and activities of the government", paragraph 130 of the annex to the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Armenia of February 25, 2021 N 252- L, an interdepartmental working group to study the issue of economic activity of "Armoil" CJSC will be set up.
The decision approves the composition of the interdepartmental working group under the leadership of the head of the Urban Development Committee. The head of the interdepartmental working group, within a month after the entry into force of this decision, was instructed to present to the Prime Minister the possibilities of launching the plant, and the corresponding decisions in the form of a roadmap. It should be reminded that in May 20, 2021, in an interview with ArmInfo correspondent, the General Director of Armoil CJSC Alfred Abedi said that in a month the petrochemical plant will start producing machine oil and bitumen. "The construction of the plant was completed two years ago, but due to a number of artificially created problems, we could not start production in any way," he said.
Alfred Abedi told ArmInfo back in 2018 that Armoil would be ready to launch a new enterprise, naming specific dates - June-July 2018. But on July 16, 2018, the Environmental and Inspection Body for Subsoil decided to stop the construction of the plant. According to official information, before the start of the refinery construction, "Armoil" did not conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA) in accordance with the RA law "On Expertise and Environmental Impact Assessment" in relation to the planned construction.
However, already at the end of August, the Armenian government made a decision to grant tax and customs privileges to "Armoil" CJSC. As the then Minister of Economic Development and Investments Artsvik Minasyan stated, there are no obstacles in the way of making a decision. The inspection body made a decision that reversed its previous decision, based on the absence of counterarguments to the arguments presented by the company. In this context, as the minister pointed out, the company is free to carry out its activities. He also explained that the previous decision was due to the fact that the inspection body banned the construction of an oil refinery, and not a processing plant. But, since as a result of the discussions it became clear that it was not about the processing of oil, but about the processing of an existing oil product, the issue was automatically resolved. Meanwhile, the plant does not function to this day.
As the general director of "Armoil" CJSC explained to ArmInfo, in 2015 the company received permission to build a plant with an area of 1400 sq. m, on an area of about 5 thousand sq. m. and, according to the law, the company was not obliged to carry out an EIA, since this obligation is fixed in the event that the territory of the enterprise exceeds 1500 sq. m. Then the territory of the enterprise expanded - the company bought a land plot of 25 thousand square meters and at the end of 2017 received government permission to transfer the acquired land plots from agricultural land to industrial land with a total area of 30 thousand square meters. After the completion of construction work, and receiving a response to the corresponding request from the expert center "Environmental Impact Assessment", which stated that in the case of a completed construction, an EIA was not required, the company "Armoil", in the manner prescribed by law, legalized the construction on the basis of the fact that the legislator allows legalizing an unauthorized building erected without a building permit. Alfred Abedi also spoke about the concerns of the environmental community about a possible threat to environmental safety and health of citizens due to the fact that the plant is located at a fairly close distance from the city. "Oil refining in Armenia, a priori, is impossible, since oil refineries are being built exclusively next to oil wells," he explained.
Thus, according to Abedi, at the first stage, having made investments in the amount of about $ 20 million, instead of the previously envisaged $ 15 million (out of the total investment package of $ 35 million), and incurring huge losses both financially and reputationally (counterparties from the UAE, Georgia and Italy have repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of supplies), and despite the absence of legislative obstacles, "Armoil" was unable to start production. "We have no problems and gaps with documentation. Taking into account the mood of the Minister of Economy (Vahan Kerobyan - ed.note), we hope to launch the enterprise in a month," the general director said.
Already at the initial stage, the production capacity of the enterprise will amount to 15 thousand tons of machine oil and 5 thousand tons of bitumen per year. The plant has a specialized laboratory equipped with modern facilities for testing and researching manufactured products to ensure their compliance with international standards. The installation and connection of the necessary installations, as the general director said, will be carried out by foreign specialists, who, according to the agreement, will also conduct 1-2 month courses for the employees of the enterprise. Due to the small volume of the local market, 80% of the manufactured products will be exported. To note, the company "Armoil" is currently engaged in the import and sale of petroleum products, petroleum raw materials, engine oils, diesel fuel, bitumen, etc. The company was founded in 2013 by founders with more than twenty years of experience in this field in the oil market in the UAE, the Islamic Republic of Iran, some countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. The company is the official representative of the Lubrex brand in Armenia and the CIS countries and imports machine oils from the UAE.
