BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 19
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
There was no apparent crude export impact from the civil unrest in Kazakhstan, Trend reports citing EIA’s Oil Market Report.
Kazakhstan refinery throughputs rebounded 70,000 barrels a day m-o-m in November as the Pavlodar refinery came back from maintenance. The protests in January also affected the three cities hosting the country’s major refineries, but no damage or operational issues have been reported so far.
LPG price increases were widely acknowledged as the cause for the protests. In 2021, Kazakh crude throughput reached record high levels, but product deliveries to the domestic market were periodically strained, possibly due to smuggling to neighbouring countries where prices are higher.
Refiners supply little LPG, with most of it coming from natural gas fractionation. The production of natural gas liquids is predominantly in the west of the country, from where it is easier to export the liquids in raw or fractionated form than to deliver to the more densely populated eastern part of the country.
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