Kazmunaigas has bought two tankers for oil supplies across the Caspian Sea and is planning to purchase two more for export through the Black Sea. However, this supply route is unlikely to compete with the CPC pipeline running through Russia
Kazakhstan has bought two oil tankers to transport oil across the Caspian Sea, the country’s Vice Minister of Energy Erlan Akkenzhenov said, Bloomberg reports.
He said that the state company Kazmunaigas has already bought two tankers, their deadweight (total maximum weight of cargo transported) is 8 thousand tons. It is also planned to purchase two more vessels with a deadweight ten times larger, which will be used in the Black Sea.
According to the vice minister, Astana is exploring alternatives for oil exports, but so far the most profitable route remains the route through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline, which supplies Kazakh oil from the Atyrau region to the port of Novorossiysk. It is “difficult for other types of logistics to compete” with CPC, Akkenzhenov said.
Last year, the CPC exported 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil, but volumes decreased by about 1% compared to the previous year. Astana also exported oil through the Georgian port of Batumi, via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, to Azerbaijan itself, as well as China and Uzbekistan. In total, 56% more was exported bypassing Russia than a year earlier, but the volume is insignificant compared to supplies via the CPC.
Last year, President of the Republic Kassym-Jomart Tokayev instructed Kazmunaigas to work out the use of the Trans-Caspian route for oil exports (it passes through China, Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and further to Turkey and European countries). The reason for this was interruptions in the work of the CPC. For example, in March, two of the three remote mooring devices for pumping oil were damaged, in August, cracks were found in the fastening points of the underwater berth arms, all this affected the volume of supplies, since the equipment required repairs. CPC has been in operation for more than 20 years.
More details on RBC:
https://www.rbc.ru/economics/31/08/2023/64f07c389a794761d463385d?ysclid=lmgwtibvd1451267221
