ASTANA, Kazakhstan, December 18. Kazakhstan's Aktau port plans to reconstruct two berths in order to increase oil transshipment capacity, a source at the port told Trend.
Currently, the port’s throughput capacity for transshipment of oil and petroleum products is 7-7.5 million tons per year.
According to the source, to increase the capacity to 20 million tons per year (taking into account the removal of non-physical barriers), reconstruction of oil berths No. 9 and No. 10 is required.
As the source noted, in order to carry out reconstruction, guaranteed volumes of oil transshipment are required on Ship or Pay terms.
The source added that project financing will be provided through borrowed funds.
Meanwhile, the total cargo turnover of the Aktau port amounted to 3.785 million tons from January through October 2023, which is 22 percent more than the same period in 2022 (3.109 million tons).
Thus, in the first 10 months of this year, oil transshipment amounted to 3.012 million tons, which is 54 percent more than in the same period in 2022 (1.957 million tons).
At the same time, grain transshipment decreased from 384,000 tons in 2022 to 162,000 in 2023.
In addition, the transshipment of metal increased by 142,000 tons (an increase of 48 percent), ferry cargo by 9,000 tons (an increase of three times), and other cargo by 459,000 tons (an increase of 31 percent).