Kazakhstan can’t transport oil via Druzhba

Kazakhstan is not ready now to take advantage of the Russian side’s proposal to transport its oil through the Druzhba pipeline because of the lack of additional volumes, chairman of the KazTransOil’s Board Kayrgeldy Kabyldin said.

"We, of course, would like to use Druzhba, but we can’t accept the proposal of the Russian side, since we don’t have growth in the oil production. For the past two years, we produced at the level of 80 million tons. Thus, the opportunity to use Druzhba exists as there is a pipe, but we don’t have additional oil," - said Kayrgeldy Kabyldin.

In mid-November, the Russian Ministry of Energy offered to transport Kazakh oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which is laid through the territory of the Ukraine. According to some sources, 15 million tons of oil are annually supplied to Europe via Druzhba, about 2 million tons of which could be replaced by Kazakh oil.