BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 10
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Kazakhstan is introducing restrictions on import of diesel fuel, Trend reports citing Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy.
The ministry said that the restrictions were introduced to ensure a comfortable balance of consumption between the volumes of locally produced and imported petroleum products, as well as to avoid a decrease in refining volumes at Kazakh refineries.
The restrictions are being introduced up until Apr. 1, 2021, and covers import using railway, road and pipeline transport. The restrictions also do not cover winter diesel and arctic diesel.
In Nov. 2020, Energy Minister of Kazakhstan Nurlan Nogayev said that the ministry was planning to prolong the ban on diesel imports until April next year, except for winter and arctic fuels. The final decision on this issue hasn’t yet been made then, but there were prerequisites for an overstocking of diesel fuel on the domestic market.
In general, he noted that thanks to the leadership of the country and the government, during the pandemic, state bodies took measures to prevent overstocking of storage facilities. Owing to this, the shutdown of Kazakh factories was avoided and a balance in the domestic fuel and lubricants market was maintained.
Some 14.4 million tons of oil were refined in Kazakhstan from Jan. through Nov. 2020, which is 2.1 percent more than the plan. Thus, production of petrol was 4.7 million tons (3.7 percent more than the plan), of diesel fuel 4.1 million tons (4.1 percent more), fuel oil was 1.83 million tons (5 percent more), jet fuel was 394,000 tons (8.9 percent lower), bitumen was 1.03 million tons (7.5 percent more).
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