Kazakhstan May Import About 385,000 Tons of Diesel by the End of the Year

Pavlodar Oil Chemistry Refinery is going to shutdown maintenance in October. To avoid shortcomings of diesel supply, Kazakhstan authorities may import 385,000 of the fuel from neighboring Russia, according to Bauyrzhan Salimgereev, the head of the oil refinery and transportation department under the Ministry of Energy.

As the indication balance shows, in 2021 the volume of possible import of diesel from Russian may reach 530,000 tons this year.

«So far we have imported 145,000 tons. Therefore, we can easily import an additional 385,000 tons of the fuel,» Salimgereev said.

He noted that because the refinery plant in Pavlodar is going to shut down in October the deficit of diesel fuel in the country might reach 110,000 tons.

«Given that the harvesting operations in the country have already been done, we now have about the same quantity (100,000) of extra fuel,» Salimgereev added.

However, to make sure that the plan of diesel import is real, Kazakhstani authorities are negotiating with their counterparts in Russia.

In the first half of the year, Kazakhstan had cut export of gas and diesel; in July the exports of fuel were stopped completely. This move was determined by domestic demand surging and the desire of Kazakhstan’s government to create a reserve of fuel inside the country.