Kazakhstan to revisit project for construction of Yeskene-Kuryk oil pipelineKazakhstan will diversify its oil export routes and will revisit the project for construction of the Yeskene-Kuryk oil pipeline, according to the National Development Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2029, adopted by a presidential decree dated July 30, 2024."Kazakhstan will consider projects for the construction of the Yeskene-Kuryk oil pipeline, marine terminals on the Kazakh and Azerbaijani coasts of the Caspian Sea, as well as for the creation of a large-tonnage tanker fleet to increase transportation along the Caspian route to 20 million tonnes per year and higher," the document says.According to the National Development Plan, the trans-Caspian middle corridor is today the key alternative export route for Kazakhstan. Should the oil transportation through the system of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium be stopped, the oil could be pumped through the Atyrau-Samara and Kazakhstan-China pipelines.In the medium term, Kazakhstan will increase oil transportation through the trans-Caspian corridor to 7 million tonnes a year, using the existing capacity of the Aktau seaport, according to the document.Should the volume of oil transportation continue to grow, Kazakhstan may need to increase the throughput capacity of the oil pipelines Atyrau-Kenkiyak and Kenkiyak-Kumkol.The plan to build an oil pipeline from Yeseken to Kuryk was first announced in 2007, when National Company KazMunayGas, Agip KCO, which operated in Kazakhstan at that time, and Tengizchevroil JSC had reached agreement to create a Kazakh Caspian transportation system (KCTS) to deliver hydrocarbons the global markets. The project envisaged that new oil transportation infrastructure would be built on Kazakhstan’s coast of the Caspian Sea, and the Kashagan field would be a resource base for the new oil transportation system. It was also envisaged that the KCTS would initially transport through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline about 25 million tonnes of oil a year to the global markets, the volume of transportation to be later increased to 38 million tonnes a year. According to KazMunayGas’ estimates, the cost of the project might come to $4 billion. (ICE ALMATY)

Fonte notizia: INTERFAX