Kazakhstan secures EU support for stable supply of Kazakh crude to Europe

Astana, June 2 (EFE) – The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, said on Friday that the European Union had pledged its support to ensure a stable and long-term supply of oil to Europe through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).

“In line with our shared interests, we count on future support from the EU to guarantee stable and long-term supplies through this pipeline of strategic importance,” Tokayev said at the 2nd Central Asia-EU Summit held in the Kyrgyz city of Cholpon-Ata.

In a meeting with Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and his counterparts from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, Tokayev noted that “currently, 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports to Europe are carried out by the CPC.”

“The energy sector traditionally occupies one of the key niches in the interaction between Kazakhstan and the EU. We are working on the diversification of hydrocarbon transport routes,” he stated.

In this regard, Tokayev said that, together with their partners in Azerbaijan, Astana is working on the development of the Trans-Caspian route, which allows for bypassing Russian territory in trade with Europe.

“Since the beginning of this year, the pumping of Kazakh crude through the ‘Aktau-Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan’ route began, with a capacity of 1.5 million tons per year,” he said.

Tokayev added that in the medium term, his country plans to “expand the export of oil through the ‘Aktau-Batumi’ route and increase pumping levels through the pipelines of the Trans-Caspian route.”

He recalled that Kazakhstan started pumping Kazakh crude to Germany through the Russian Druzhba pipeline, noting that “since the beginning of the year, 90,000 tons have already been supplied.”

“We have the capacity to increase this figure to 1.2 million annually, with the possibility of future increases,” he indicated.

Furthermore, he highlighted the development of gas processing and transport capacities as a priority.

“In this regard, the construction of the second line of the ‘Beyneu-Bozoy-Shymkent’ gas pipeline and the construction of a gas processing plant in the Kazhagan field (north of the Caspian Sea), with a capacity of 4 billion cubic meters per year, is of great importance to us,” he stated.

“We count on future support from our European partners in these important regional-scale projects,” the President concluded. EFE

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