Kazakhstan plans to increase exports of its KEBCO oil via Russia by 14% in December versus November to 1.12 million metric tons, according to two traders and data from LSEG and shipping agents.

Kazakhstan supplies its KEBCO oil, similar to Urals in quality, through the Russian ports of Novorossiisk and Ust-Luga as well as via the Druzhba pipeline to Germany.

Four tankers with Kazakh KEBCO oil each carrying 100,000 tons are scheduled to be shipped from the port of Ust-Luga this month compared to 200,000 tons in November, according to the data from LSEG and shipping agents seen by Reuters.

The shipments of Kazakh oil from Ust-Luga port this month are scheduled for Dec. 1-2, 9-10, 24-25, 30-31, one of the traders said.

Kazakhstan’s oil shipment from Novorossiisk is set at 520,000 tons in December compared to 600,000 tons in a November plan, the traders said. Meanwhile, actual shipments of Kazakh crude last month were below the schedule due to a storm, traders said, so shipments in December may be higher than planned due to delayed volumes.

Kazakhstan plans to increase oil exports via the Druzhba oil pipeline to Germany to 200,000 tons in December from 154,000 tons in November. Kazakh oil producers seek to increase oil supplies via alternative routes to Black Sea ports as bad weather may suspend loadings from the outlets again.

The severe storm in the Black Sea area in November led to significant delays in loadings from main Russian ports.

Oil exports via the Black Sea’s Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) fell to 4.1 million metric tons in November from 5.4 million tons in an initial plan.

Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiisk failed to ship some 1.2 million metric tons of the 2.34 million tons of crude initially scheduled for export and transit in November.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)