Kazakhstan seeks alternative oil route as CPC attacks cut exports

Kazakhstan needs to develop the Baku–Supsa oil export route as an alternative transportation corridor amid attacks on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), Kazakh Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said.

Speaking about the impact of the attacks on Kazakhstan’s oil exports, Akkenzhenov said the country had lost about 3.5 million tonnes of oil as a result of disruptions affecting the CPC.

“Certain groundwork has been done in the negotiations, but there have been no direct talks yet. But just imagine: we lost 3.5 million tonnes because of the attacks on the CPC, although we could have redirected these volumes through the port of Aktau via the Baku–Supsa pipeline. Its capacity, incidentally, is 5 million tonnes. In that case, the losses in monetary terms would have been much, much lower,” Akkenzhenov said, according to Zakon.kz.

The minister said the Baku–Supsa route was necessary for Kazakhstan as one of its alternative oil export corridors.

“Those who oppose this pipeline and this route probably do not fully understand the scale of the losses Kazakhstan has suffered as a result of these attacks. The same oil that was not produced, as well as oil from fields that were temporarily shut down or operating at reduced capacity, could have been shipped through this pipeline. That is why I am fully in favour of this route,” Akkenzhenov added.

The Baku–Supsa pipeline provides an alternative route for transporting oil from Azerbaijan’s Caspian coast to the Georgian Black Sea port of Supsa. Kazakhstan could potentially use the corridor to diversify exports and reduce its dependence on the CPC route.

By Tamilla Hasanova