Kazakhstan is ready to increase the transit of Russian oil to China by 3mn tonnes to 10mn tonnes a year, the general director of Kazakhstan’s oil pipeline monopoly, Nurtas Shmanov, told a news conference in Astana on May 30.
Falling oil output and weaker demand in China has led to a decline in Kazakh oil shipments. Kazakhstan ships oil via the Atasu-Alashankou oil pipeline. It transported 11.8mn tonnes of oil via the pipeline in 2015. Of the total, Kazakh oil stood at 4.8mn tonnes and the remaining 7mn tonnes were Russian oil. The plans to increase the pipeline’s capacity to 20mn tonnes has been put on hold until Chinese demand for oil picks up.
“Today, the volume transited from the Russian territory to China is 7mn tonnes in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement between Kazakhstan and Russia. We are ready to increase it. We can reach 10 million tons without any technical actions,” Shmanov said, according to AKIpress.
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