Kazakhstan seeks to bypass Russia when exporting oil

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 31 Aug 2023 by Alex Teddy
On August 31 Bloomberg reported that Kazakhstan is buying tankers. Much Kazakh oil is transported by pipeline across Russia to Novorossiysk on the Black Sea and then taken by tanker to market. Kazmunaygaz has already bought two tankers, and each of them has a dead weight tonnage of 8,000 tonnes. A Kazakh government minister says that there are plans to by another two tankers with a tonnage of 80,000 each. The tankers will operate in the Caspian Sea. The oil will be transported from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan and then be transported by pipeline to reach the Mediterranean.  Kazakhstan exported 300,000 tonnes of oil via the pipeline from Azerbaijan in 2022. It plans to increase that to 1.5 million in 2023. This is good news for Azerbaijan when it earns transit fees.  Relations between Russia and Kazakhstan are not as cordial as they once were. Kazakhstan is still a member of the Russian-led military alliance the CSTO and its economic bloc, the Eurasian Union. But Kazakhstan is neutral on Ukraine. Some Kazakhs fear that if Russia wins in Ukraine then it will seek to redraw its border with Kazakhstan, where 20% of the population is ethnically Russian.  The Black Sea is a war zone. Even if relations with Russia were very good there is a chance that an intensified conflict could close that sea to commercial traffic. 

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