Kazakhstan buys oil tankers to facilitate the export of its production

Kazakhstan has decided to purchase a number of oil tankers to export its production through the Caspian and Black seas, in the latest sign that the largest oil producing country in Central Asia is seeking to find alternative ways to export oil away from the pipeline that transports it through Russian territory to seaports.
Kazakh deputy Energy Minister Yerlan akhenzhenov said that one of the units of the Kazakh state-owned kazmunyai gas National has already purchased two 8,000-ton tankers, which are relatively small by oil industry standards, to transport crude across the Caspian Sea.

He added that the company also intends to purchase two more tankers weighing 80 thousand tons each, which is the most common size in the Black Sea.
The Bloomberg News Agency noted that Kazakhstan is looking for these alternatives, although the Caspian pipeline project, which passes through Russia, remains the most profitable route for transporting Kazakh crude exports, according to the Deputy Energy Minister.
Akinzhinov said that all other transport routes are” finding it difficult to compete ” with the Caspian pipeline at the moment.
The pipeline transported about 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports last year, with crude from production fields being transported via an overland pipeline to the Russian export port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea to be carried by large tankers to world markets.