Kazakhstan could step up crude supplies to Germany - Tokayev

ASTANA. June 2 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan could step up crude supplies to Germany, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.

"Kazakhstan has begun to supply oil to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline. As much as 90,000 tonnes have been supplied since the start of the year. This amount could potentially be raised to 1.2 million tonnes a year, and possibly increased even further in the future," Tokayev said at the Central Asia-European Union summit in Kyrgyzstan's Cholpon-Ata on Friday.

KazTransOil Deputy CEO Erik Sagiyev said earlier that, while the company was receiving bids for increasing the amount of Kazakh oil transported via the Druzhba pipeline to Germany, a decision on possibly increasing the supplies would depend on its Russian partners.

KazTransOil has a quota from Russia's Transneft to transport 1.2 million tonnes of Kazakh oil to Germany in 2023, he said.

Plans for pumping oil for next year are usually discussed at the end of the third or the start of the fourth quarter, he said.

Kazakh crude is transported through the Druzhba pipeline to the oil refinery in Schwedt, Germany, which was owned by Russia's Rosneft but taken over by Germany's Federal Network Agency in September 2022. The Russian oil company's subsidiary Rosneft Deutschland controlled about 12% of Germany's oil refining capacity and was one of the biggest players on the local fuel market.

The Schwedt refinery, which has capacity to produce 11.6 million tonnes of oil products per year, has been linked to the Druzhba pipeline and Russian oil fields from its inception.

KazTransOil is a division of Kazakhstan national oil and gas group KazMunayGas (KMG). It owns a diversified 5,400-kilometer-long network of trunk oil pipelines.