At the end of December 2022, the Kazakh state management JSC NC KazMunayGas (KMG) announced that it planned to send the first test batch of crude oil to Germany in January 2023. This would be the export of gold Kazakh black to the refinery in the German city of Schwedt via the main Druzhba pipeline through Russia, Belarus and Poland.
The other day it turned out that a batch of Kazakh oil scheduled for shipment to Germany in the amount of 20,000 tons did not leave the territory of Kazakhstan in January, and then in the first fortnight of February, after the transfer of raw materials from the original date. On February 15, the public was informed about this by the Kazakh national oil pipeline operator KazTransOil JSC (KTO), which is part of KMG.
The deputy head of Kazakhstan’s energy ministry, Askhat Khasenov, confirmed that the supply of raw materials had been postponed. He specified that the pumping will take place in the second half of February. The official pointed out that the indicated volume of oil for this month was announced for transportation through the Druzhba pipeline. At the same time, he said he was confident that there were no technical restrictions and it was all about the negotiations, which take a lot of time.
In turn, Reuters reported that in March Kazakhstan will supply 100,000 tons of oil through the Druzhba pipeline to Germany. Raw materials should go to the former oil refinery “Rosneft” Schwedt. So said two sources familiar with how the trade negotiations between buyer and supplier unfold.
It should be noted that in the first quarter of 2023, the KTO company planned to export 300,000 tons of oil of Kazakh origin from Kazakhstan to Germany through the Druzhba pipeline. Meanwhile, the head of Kazakhstan’s energy ministry, Bolat Akchulakov, said his country will export 1.5 million tons of oil to Germany in 2023 and could increase the volume to 7 million tons. .
Meanwhile, Transneft chief Nikolai Tokarev told media on February 21 that the company had received requests from Germany and Poland to pump Kazakh oil through the Druzhba pipeline in the second quarter of 2023. On December 20, Tokarev said that Transneft had received requests to pump oil from these countries for the first quarter of 2023.
