23 may
At public hearings in Nur-Sultan, Energy Minister Bolat Akchulakov said that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium has been fully restored and is operating as normal. At the same time, he noted that it is better for Kazakhstan to have alternative oil export routes, but there are none yet, SK News.
“We have these alternatives, but not in such huge quantities as CPC, because it is 54 million tons of oil per year. It is simply technically unrealistic to find an alternative overnight. It takes at least three years to develop such a volume. Even the same route to China is only 20 million people. Not only do we want to expand it, but will colleagues from China take it from the other side? Whether they will buy so much oil is also a question. Moreover, this is a single consumer market. There, apart from China, no one consumes in this direction,” Akchulakov said on the sidelines of the hearings.
It is possible to export oil through Baku, but this is a very long and complicated way in terms of infrastructure. It is necessary to pull the oil pipeline through the Kuryk port and find tankers that can pass through the Caspian shallow water. According to Akchulakov, only 16.5 million tons of oil can be shipped via alternative routes, but not 54 million.
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