Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 10 / Trend E. Kosolapova /
Kazakhstan holds negotiations on Russian oil supplies to the country's refineries, spokesman for Kazakh National Oil and Gas Company KazMunaiGas Konstantin Kharlamov told Trend on Friday.
According to Mr Kharlamov, restricted oil supplies from Russia cause problems in work of Kazakh refineries and first of all of Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant.
"Restricted oil supplies from Russia might result in jet fuel shortage in Kazakhstan," Kharlamov said.
Russia made decision to reduce duty-free oil supplies to Kazakhstan to 6 million tons in 2012 from 7 million tons of supplies in 2011. Restricted oil supplies cause problems for jet fuel production in the country. The main producer of jet fuel in the country, Pavlodar plant, due to its specifications can not produce such kind of fuel from Kazakh crude oil. Jet fuel is produced here from Russian oil.
Last week, Kazakh National air carrier Air Astana reported about critical situation in terms of securing aviation fuel.
"The situation with aviation fuel is critical at the moment," Mr Foster said. "Kazakhstan refineries do not produce enough volume not only for Air Astana, but also for other airlines that fly from Kazakhstan," Air Astana President Peter Foster said.
According to Mr Kharlamov, Kazakhstan is considering possibilities of Pavlodar plant redirecting to Kazakh oil processing. However this process is a very difficult and long. Thus, the plant will not produce jet fuel from Kazakh oil in near future.