Astana, Jan 16 (EFE).- Kazakhstan, the largest country in Central Asia, extracted almost 90 million tonnes of oil in 2023, almost six million tonnes more than the previous year, Kazakh Energy Minister Almassadam Satkaliyev said Tuesday.
“Initially, we planned to produce 92-93 million tonnes of oil, but we actually produced 90 million tonnes,” Satkaliyev told a press conference.
This year, the Central Asian republic plans to produce up to 90.3 million tonnes.
The minister commented, in particular, on the operation of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline, which runs through Russian territory and through which 70-80 percent of Kazakh crude oil reaches European consumers.
According to Satkaliyev, there are currently no problems with the transport of Kazakh oil.
In 2022, following statements by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev about respecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the pumping of oil through the pipeline was temporarily stopped.
This situation was repeated four more times in a year, which Kazakh experts linked to Astana’s stance on the Russian war in Ukraine.
Subsequently, the authorities of the former Soviet republic announced the need to develop the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), which does not pass through Russian territory and runs through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
However, Nikolai Gorban, director of the CPC international consortium, denied that the stoppages were politically motivated.
“All the stoppages were due to technical reasons or weather conditions,” he said.
Gorban added that this year the pipeline will pump more than 70 million tonnes of crude oil, 60 million of it from Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, after the completion of work to expand the CPC’s transportation capacity, the pipeline will be able to pump 83 million tonnes, he said. EFE