Kazakhstan began to increase the fleet for oil supplies bypassing Russia

This year, Kazmortransflot plans to purchase two oil tankers for operation in the Caspian Sea with a deadweight of 8,000 tons, writes “Kommersant”. According to the newspaper, he needs the ships to supply oil bypassing Russia through Azerbaijan.

As a result, Kommersant writes, the Caspian fleet of Kazmortransflot will increase to five vessels. It is specified that now he owns the tankers “Astana”, “Aktau” and “Almaty” with a deadweight of 12,400 tons each. The newspaper notes that transportation in the Caspian Sea has to be carried out by such small vessels due to shallow depths.

Kazakhstan needs new vessels to diversify export deliveries, 80% of which now pass through Russia, Kommersant writes. Due to the fact that in 2022, deliveries through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline were stopped several times, Kazakhstan, taking into account the current political situation, began to look for alternative routes. The main of them was the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, but, as the newspaper writes, Kazakhstan is forced to transport oil to it by tankers across the Caspian. It is noted that in 2023, within the framework of the agreement between Kazmunaigas and the Azerbaijani SOCAR, it is planned to send 1.5 million tons of oil from the Tengiz field in this direction.

According to Kommersant’s sources, the government of Kazakhstan is discussing the option of a significant increase in supplies through the BTC – up to 20 million tons per year. But, as the newspaper notes, this is hampered by long-term contracts with CPC and the unattractive economics of transportation. Deliveries through the BTC are more expensive and their increase requires investments in the expansion of the Aktau port, deepening the seabed in the Caspian Sea and increasing the capacity of the BTC itself. According to Kommersant’s sources, we are talking about “several tens of billions of dollars.”