Kazakhstan ups trans-Caspian oil exports by 54 in first eight months,includes Tengiz portion

摘要

Kazakhstan increased crude exports in the first eight months of 2023 across the Caspian from the port of Aktau by 54% year on year to 2.16 million mt(67,000 b/d),according to data Sept.8 from infrastructure operator KazTransOil.The country is trying to diversify its exports away from reliance on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium route across southern Russia to the Black Sea coast,from where light sweet CPC Blend loads near Novorossiisk.The diversification drive follows a number of disruptions at Novorossiisk in 2022 as well as an Aug.4 attack on a Russian navy landing vessel near the CPC loading facilities,likely linked to the war in Ukraine.However,the shipments across the Caspian of crude from fields that mostly feed CPC Blend remain small compared with typical CPC Blend loading volumes of nearly 1.5 million b/d.Port bottlenecks on both sides of the Caspian limit exports.