Kazakhstan Could Suspend Natural Gas Exports Next Winter

Kazakhstan could halt natural gas exports next winter to prevent a domestic gas supply crisis, QazaqGaz deputy chief executive Arman Kasenov was quoted as saying by Russian media on Monday.

Kazakhstan, the biggest oil producer in Central Asia, exports natural gas to Russia and China. QazaqGaz manages Kazakhstan’s natural gas transportation infrastructure, provides international transit, and sells gas on the domestic and foreign markets.

There will be no deficit of gas in Kazakhstan next winter, but only if there are no exports, QazaqGaz’s Kasenov said.

Kazakhstan’s gas demand was 21 billion cubic meters in 2022, while exports were 5 billion cubic meters. However, Kazakhstan’s gas consumption continues to rise and is expected to double to 40 billion cubic meters by 2030, Kasenov added.

Last year in June, Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Bolat Akchulakov said that the country’s current priority was not to export natural gas but to meet domestic demand. 

Kazakhstan expects a deficit, and it will cut gas exports to zero by 2025, the energy minister said.

“And then we will have to think where to get gas to meet the growing demand, in addition to our own production,” Akchulakov said in June 2022.  

Meanwhile, crude oil from Kazakhstan started flowing via the Russian pipeline network to Poland for further delivery to Germany, Russian pipeline monopoly operator Transneft said on Monday. 

This weekend, Kazakhstan’s oil pipeline operator KazTransOil delivered 20,000 tons of Kazakhstani oil to Transneft’s system of oil pipelines in the direction of the Adamova Zastava oil delivery point for further transit to Germany, the company said today. In December 2022, KazTransOil applied to transport a total of 1.2 million tons of Kazakh crude oil through Transneft’s system of trunk oil pipelines in the direction of the Adamova Zastava point for further delivery to Germany, the Kazakh firm said today.   

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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