Kazakhstan almost doubled oil exports circumventing Russia’s ports in 2023 to 3.73 million metric tons (74,600 barrels per day) from 1.91 million tons in 2022, according to industry sources and Reuters calculations.

That accounted for just over 5% of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas condensate exports last year.

In total, the country exported 70.5 million tons of oil and gas condensate last year, up from 64.3 million tons in 2022.

While Kazakhstan has sought alternatives to exporting via sanctions-hit Russia, its main export route remains the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) which supplies oil to the global market via a Russian Black Sea terminal.

CPC accounts for around 80% of the oil exports from Kazakhstan, the world’s largest landlocked country.

Kazakhstan also exports via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, the Georgian port of Batumi and Russia’s Druzhba pipeline to Germany.

Kazakhstan also exports oil to China, which saw flows fall by 4% last year to 1.2 million tons.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Reuters; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by John Davison and Jason Neely)