Kazakhstan increased oil exports by 7% year on year to 19.515 million metric tons (1.63 million barrels per day) in January-March thanks to a supply boost via the Caspian pipeline, Reuters calculations based on official data and sources showed on Tuesday.
Oil output and exports from Kazakhstan, a top-10 oil producer, have been in the spotlight as the Central Asian country has been exceeding quotas agreed by the OPEC+ alliance, angering several members of the group, including Saudi Arabia.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which exports oil from Kazakhstan via a Russian Black Sea terminal, has been beset by drone attacks and wrangling over terminal equipment at Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiisk.
Russia has said a CPC pumping station in the south of the country was attacked by a Ukrainian drone in February, while in March a nearby oil depot was set ablaze also following a suspected Ukrainian drone strike.
According to Kazakhstan’s Situational and Analytical Center for the Fuel and Energy Complex at the Energy Ministry, first-quarter exports via the CPC rose 11% from a year earlier to 16.388 million tons.
Supplies from the Chevron-led Tengiz oilfield, the country’s largest, jumped 26% in the period to 8.944 million tons amid the field’s expansion, the data showed.
Exports to China via the Atasu-Alashankou pipeline dropped by 11% in the first three months of the year to 238,000 tons.
Kazakh oil exports via the Soviet-built Druzhba pipeline through Russia to Germany increased in January-March to 377,000 tons from 300,000 tons in the same period of 2024.
According to Kazakh pipeline operator Kaztransoil, supplies via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, designed to bypass Russia as a transit route, declined in the first quarter to 319,206 tons from 364,650 tons in the year-earlier period.
(Reporting by Reuters Editing by Mark Potter)