U.S. actively cooperating with Kazakhstan to find oil export routes alternate to Caspian Pipeline Consortium

ASTANA. Nov 25 (Interfax) - The United States has been actively cooperating with Kazakhstan in searching for oil export routes alternate to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium that goes through the Russian territory, U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan Daniel Rosenblum said.

"All companies [participating in oil production in Kazakhstan], both from and outside the U.S., are actively engaged in dialogue with the governments of Kazakhstan and others to search for new alternate routes [for oil exports]," Rosenblum said in response to Interfax's question about the participation of U.S. companies in the search for alternatives to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.

"You must have seen the news last week, which said that the transportation of about 1.5 million tonnes of oil will begin in early 2023 [along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan route]. I think that will be the beginning of new, alternate routes. This is one of the first steps," he said.

The transportation of oil from Kazakhstan is "a pressing matter," Rosenblum said.

"The key to resolving this problem will be alternate routes for oil transportation from Kazakhstan," he said.

As reported earlier, Kazakhstan will begin shipments of 1.5 million tonnes of oil along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan route in January 2023, and the transported amounts may later grow to 6.5 million tonnes.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium's pipeline, which goes through the Russian territory, is the main route for exports of Kazakh oil [which accounts for over 80% of the crude carried by the pipeline]. The pipeline was operating smoothly for over 20 years. The system has been struggling with transportation limits under external factors over the past year. These include an oil spill in August 2021, the damage sustained by single mooring points (SMPs) in a gale of March 2022, the search of terminal waters for explosive devices (which had no effect on the transportation schedule), and the shutdown of two SMPs in August 2022.