Astana, Kazakhstan, April 22
By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:
Russia will be able to transport around seven million tonnes of its oil to China through Kazakhstan, with the possibility of increasing this volume to 10 million tonnes per year, Kazakh Deputy Minister of Oil and Gas, Magzum Mirzagaliev told Trend.
"The situation dramatically changed for the first time in 2014: the transit oil from Russia to China is now transported through Kazakhstan as well. Russia will be able to transport seven million tonnes of oil to China per year through our territory. There is a possibility to increase this volume to 10 million tonnes per year," the deputy minister said.
Mirzagaliev pointed out that starting from 2014, the Kazakh side gets the right to independently substitute the Russian gas with Kazakh gas in the main pipelines system, on condition that it will transfer this oil to the Russian side at the end point of Alashankou.
"Thus, we get the opportunity to feed the Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant by implementing the so-called technical SWAP. Russian oil is delivered to our plant, afterwards it is substituted with Kazakh oil in the main pipelines system and delivered to China in the quantity and quality stipulated by the agreement on transportation," Mirzagaliev said.
The deputy minister recalled that this agreement took effect in Jan.1, 2014 and will be valid until Jan.1, 2019.
"After the expiration of the mentioned timeframe, the agreement will be automatically extended to five years. That's to say, it is a mutual process that explicitly takes into account the interests of all members of the future Eurasian Union," Mirzagaliev said.
Translated by L.Z.
Edited by C.N.