Kazakhstan, the world’s largest landlocked country, increased oil exports that bypassed Russia last year, but was still heavily reliant on supply channels via its neighbor, Report informs referring to Reuters.
Kazakhstan has sought ways to decrease its dependence on Russian exporting routes as it has often faced difficulties in selling oil through Russia.
Kazakh oil is not subject to Western sanctions, unlike Russian crude, although the sanctions have created problems for some Kazakh products.
The main, and most profitable, route for oil exports from Kazakhstan remains the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which supplies oil to the global market via a Russian Black Sea terminal.
Supplies via CPC dipped 1% last year to 51.99 million tons, accounting for more than 80% of total oil supplies from Kazakhstan.
CPC faced maintenance and other issues, which hindered oil exports in 2022.
According to Reuters calculations based on industry data and sources, Kazakhstan’s oil exports via routes other than Russia reached 1.80 million tons (36,000 barrels per day) last year, up by 638,000 tons from 2021.
That included 1.26 million tons delivered to China, 214,000 tons sent via the Georgian port of Batumi, 141,000 tons to the oil refinery in Baku, 109,000 tons to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and 80,000 tons to Uzbekistan.