Kazakhstan Oil Exports - The Times Of Central Asia

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druzhba pipeline

Kazakhstan Asks Russia to Reopen Druzhba Oil Route to Germany After Six-Month Halt

Kazakhstan has formally asked Russia to restore oil shipments to Germany through the Druzhba pipeline, six months after Moscow suspended the route. The request follows a drone attack on Russian infrastructure that briefly halted another Kazakh oil export route earlier this week. Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said on November 4 that he had personally delivered the request to Russian officials. Kazakhstan has the technical capacity to resume deliveries, he told reporters, and is awaiting Moscow’s response. “I personally delivered an official request in a face-to-face meeting,” Akkenzhenov said, but gave no timetable for a decision. The suspended route carried Kazakh crude through Russia, Belarus and Poland to the PCK refinery in Schwedt, northeastern Germany. Russia halted transit on May 1, citing technical restrictions, and the deliveries have remained suspended ever since. Kazakhstan shipped 2.1 million metric tons to Schwedt through Druzhba in 2025, and had planned to increase the figure to approximately 3 million tons this year. Before the suspension, it delivered 1.02 million tons between January and April, according to Interfax. A German Market, a Russian Transit Route Kazakh oil became an important replacement for Russian crude after Germany ended direct imports from Russia in 2023. The Schwedt refinery had previously depended on Russian supplies. Kazakh producers could reach it through the same Soviet-era pipeline network, and this arrangement grew quickly. In October 2025, the parties extended supplies through the end of 2026. Schwedt is central to fuel supplies around the German capital. The refinery says it supplies approximately 90% of the gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil used in Berlin and Brandenburg. Kazakh crude accounted for about 17% of its oil intake before the halt. The refinery has an unusual ownership arrangement. Russia’s Rosneft retains its majority stake through German subsidiaries, but the German government has controlled those interests since 2022. Berlin placed them under a new trusteeship in February 2026. In August, a Schwedt refinery spokesperson said crude imported through Poland’s Gdańsk port had fully replaced the missing Kazakh volumes. By October 28, the refinery was operating at more than 86% capacity, according to regional authorities. Its management said alternative supplies had kept operations stable despite the loss of Kazakh crude. The refinery also takes oil through Germany’s port of Rostock. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak attributed the suspension to “technical capabilities” in April. He said the oil would move through other export routes. Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry then allocated 260,000 tons of May shipments elsewhere, including 160,000 tons through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) and 100,000 tons through Russia’s Baltic port of Ust-Luga. Both alternatives allowed exports to continue, but neither eliminated dependence on Russian transport infrastructure. [caption id="attachment_60096" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] The PCK oil refinery in Schwedt, Germany; image: Rauenstein[/caption] Another Disruption at Samara That vulnerability was apparent again this week, when drone attacks on facilities at Russia’s Samara oil transit hub forced the Atyrau–Samara pipeline to stop pumping on November 2. Kazakhstan resumed shipments the following day after technical checks. Atyrau–Samara connects Kazakhstan’s western...

Energy Security

Interview with Umud Shokri: Can Kazakhstan Reduce Its Dependence on Russian Oil Export Routes?

Kazakhstan sent more than four-fifths of its oil exports in 2025 through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which crosses Russia to the Black Sea. Repeated disruptions have exposed the risks of relying so heavily on a single route. While alternative shipments across the Caspian Sea are growing, volumes remain small. Falling water levels and higher transport costs complicate efforts to expand these alternative routes, while tensions around Iran pose risks to routes farther south. These challenges extend beyond Kazakhstan. The country is Central Asia’s largest oil producer, and its export decisions affect trade and energy infrastructure across the Caspian region, the South Caucasus and Europe. Meanwhile, plans to export renewable electricity across the Caspian could create new connections between Central Asia and European energy markets. To examine the region’s options, The Times of Central Asia spoke with Dr. Umud Shokri, a Washington-based energy strategist and Visiting Senior Fellow at George Mason University. He is the author of U.S. Energy Diplomacy in the Caspian Sea Basin (Springer, 2021) and is preparing two books: Hormuz and the Geopolitics of Eurasian Energy Infrastructure (Routledge) and Iran’s Energy Transition Under Constraint: War, Sanctions, and Systemic Vulnerability (Springer). TCA: How is Central Asia’s role in Eurasian energy security changing, and where does Kazakhstan fit into this shift? Umud Shokri: I think the biggest change is that Central Asian countries are looking beyond the routes they have relied on for decades. Oil and gas still move mainly through Russia and China, but governments are also exploring connections across the Caspian and south through Iran. They want more choices and greater control over how their resources reach markets. Kazakhstan is central to this shift. It is the region's largest oil producer, and its location gives it links to Russia, China, the Caspian and the South Caucasus. However, its heavy dependence on a single major oil export route remains a significant vulnerability. There is also a growing focus on electricity. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are working on plans for a green-energy corridor across the Caspian. Commissioning of the Central Asia–Azerbaijan link is planned to begin in 2032, while the separate Caspian–Black Sea–Europe corridor is expected to reach full capacity by 2040. These are long-term goals; neither corridor is operating yet. Kazakhstan is therefore both a major energy supplier and a country seeking to broaden its options. Its relationships with Russia, China, Europe, Türkiye and its neighbors all matter. But diplomacy alone is not enough. The region needs investment in pipelines, ports, power lines and domestic grids to turn diversification plans into reliable alternatives. TCA: Kazakhstan relies heavily on the CPC pipeline. Can the route through Azerbaijan and Türkiye become a substantial alternative? Umud Shokri: The CPC is still Kazakhstan's main oil export route. It carried 64.8 million metric tons of Kazakh oil in 2025, or about four-fifths of the country's exports. That volume cannot be shifted elsewhere quickly. But repeated disruptions have shown why Kazakhstan needs alternatives. The route through Azerbaijan and Türkiye is already operating. Kazakh oil...

Kazakhstan Oil Exports

Kazakhstan Seeks Oil Export Alternatives After Latest CPC Disruption

A drone incident near the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal outside Novorossiysk briefly halted oil loading on September 8, again highlighting Kazakhstan’s dependence on its main export route through Russia. Astana is seeking to expand alternatives, but the difference in volumes remains enormous. According to Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry, the country exported 64.8 million tons of oil through CPC in 2025. The ministry puts shipments via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline at 1.2 million tons annually. Azerbaijan has said it is ready to receive up to 2.2 million tons of Kazakh oil through BTC annually, although KazMunayGas expects shipments of up to 1.6 million tons in 2026. Even this higher figure would be only around 3% of the volume Kazakhstan exported through CPC last year. The Caspian route allows oil from Kazakhstan to bypass Russian territory entirely. Crude is shipped to the port of Aktau, carried by tanker across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, and then transported through the BTC pipeline via Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. However, the logistics are more complicated than direct pipeline transportation. A substantial increase in exports could require additional tanker capacity and improvements to transport infrastructure on both sides of the Caspian. Kazakhstan also exports oil eastward to China. Another alternative is the Atyrau-Samara pipeline, although it feeds crude into Russia’s pipeline system and does not reduce reliance on Russian transit. The latest incident temporarily stopped loading at two single-point moorings, the offshore facilities used to load crude onto tankers. Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry said inspections of the equipment and vessels found no issues affecting continued loading. It reported no environmental impact. Loading resumed, and CPC imposed no restrictions on accepting crude from Kazakh shippers. CPC operations had already been interrupted several times in 2026 following attacks in the terminal area. The disruptions have added up. Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov estimated that incidents affecting CPC in January and July had caused about 3.5 million tons of lost production. He said Kazakhstan would have to lower its 2026 oil production forecast from 98 million tons to around 96 million tons. The problem for Astana is the scale of its dependence. CPC connects Kazakhstan’s largest oilfields to the Black Sea and accounted for approximately 82% of the country’s 78.7 million tons of oil exports in 2025. Even doubling or tripling shipments across the Caspian would leave CPC dominant. Kazakhstan can gradually spread its exports across several routes, but the alternatives cannot currently replace its main export channel. For more on our special coverage, click here.

druzhba pipeline

South American Crude Reaches German Refinery via Poland After Russia Halts Oil Transit from Kazakhstan

South American crude oil has been delivered to Germany’s PCK refinery in Schwedt via Poland, providing an alternative supply route after Russia halted the transit of crude from Kazakhstan through the Druzhba pipeline earlier this year. Poland’s UNIMOT Group said its subsidiary, UNIMOT Paliwa, imported the seaborne cargo through the Baltic port of Gdańsk before transporting it to the Schwedt refinery using Poland’s PERN pipeline network. The shipment comes after Russia suspended the transit of crude from Kazakhstan to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline on May 1. The route had become increasingly important after Germany stopped importing Russian oil following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s pipeline operator, Transneft, cited technical constraints as the reason for the suspension. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak later told reporters that Germany’s rejection of Russian crude suggested the country no longer required those supplies. Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry subsequently confirmed that exports to Germany through Druzhba had stopped on May 1. Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said Kazakhstan shipped no crude to the PCK refinery in May through the Atyrau-Samara-Druzhba route. He said unofficial information from the Russian side linked the suspension to a lack of technical capacity, likely caused by recent attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. Kazakhstan began supplying crude to the Schwedt refinery through Druzhba in 2023 as Germany sought to replace Russian oil. Exports rose steadily, reaching 1.5 million tons in 2024 and 2.146 million tons in 2025, up 44% year on year. Shipments totaled 730,000 tons in the first quarter of 2026. Annual exports had been expected to rise to about 2.5 million tons, enough to meet roughly 30% of the refinery’s crude requirements. Reuters reported in April, citing three industry sources, that Russia planned to halt oil exports from Kazakhstan to Germany on May 1. The news agency said a complete suspension would remove about 17% of the crude processed annually by the PCK refinery, one of Germany’s largest. The loss would add uncertainty to the country’s fuel supply amid disruption in global energy markets. The PCK refinery supplies approximately 90% of the gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and heating oil consumed in Berlin and the neighboring state of Brandenburg. It also exports around 2 million tons of refined fuels annually to western Poland. German broadcaster RBB reported that the latest shipment arrived by tanker through the port of Gdańsk. According to the refinery’s works council, the crude is believed to have come from Guyana. Rosneft Deutschland, the refinery’s majority shareholder, has been under German government trusteeship since 2022. A company spokesperson confirmed the delivery, saying it would help maintain refinery operations at around 80% of capacity. UNIMOT Vice President Robert Brzozowski said the shipment represented more than a commercial transaction because Poland’s maritime and pipeline infrastructure supports fuel security on both sides of the German-Polish border. The delivery reflects Europe’s efforts to diversify crude supply routes after the disruption of crude transit from Kazakhstan through Russia. Germany is seeking alternative supplies for the PCK refinery. Kazakhstan has said the suspension will...