Astana, Kazakhstan, Dec. 3
By Daniar Mukhtarov - Trend:
Kazakhstan, for the time being, doesn't intend to build or purchase terminals for oil transhipment at seaports abroad, a high-ranking source in Kazakhstan's national company, KazTransOil, told Trend Dec. 3.
"We already have a terminal at Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi, but we don't know what to do with it, since there is no additional oil, and the cargo volume is reducing," the source said commenting on the Estonian ports' proposal to the Kazakh companies to build their own terminals in the Baltic Sea.
The interviewee noted that over the past two years, the oil production in Kazakhstan has stood at the level of 80 million metric tons.
"There is no growth in oil production. Aside from that, we are increasing the supplies of oil to the domestic market," he said.
However, the source added that while Kazakhstan today has no intention to build terminals for oil transhipment abroad, it has such intention in respect of dry cargos.
It was previously reported that the ports of the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), as well as Germany, offer their services for transhipment of cargoes of Kazakhstan, including oil and gas.
In particular, it was reported that the Estonian Muuga Harbour is ready to provide the Kazakh companies with territory for construction of its own terminal.
At the same time, an informed source in the Azerbaijani State Oil Company (SOCAR) told Trend that in this way it could be possible to solve the problem of workload at the Batumi terminal in Georgia.
"We [SOCAR] right away offered to purchase, on an equal basis, one of the terminals on the Black Sea in Georgia. And at that time both companies would not have experienced problems with the workload of the terminal," the source said.
The interviewee said that however, KazMunaiGas, the Kazakh state-owned oil and gas company, decided to buy the Batumi terminal on their own, and SOCAR had to buy the terminal in Kulevi on the eastern coast of Black Sea in Georgia.
Edited by CN