Energy Minister of Kazakhstan Bolat Akchulakov said that the country had received verbal permission from the Russian authorities to supply Kazakh oil through the Russian pipeline system to Germany. The Kazakh minister's words are quoted by Tengri.news.
“We were waiting for official confirmation from colleagues from the Russian Federation, because the pass through their border. We received verbal confirmation, I think there will be no problems. While there is verbally, it is not yet in writing,” Akchulakov said.
According to the minister, Kazakhstan will not be able to meet all the needs of Germany in oil supplies, but it can offer it a maximum of up to 6 million tons per year. Nevertheless, at the moment, the volume of possible deliveries is estimated at 1.5 million tons per year. Akchulakov also noted that Kazakhstan has never had big problems with the pumping of oil through Russia, so he does not expect them now.
In December, representatives of Kazakhstan and Germanyagreed to deliver a trial batch of Kazakh oil through the Russian pipeline system to Germany. It was about the supply of oil via the Druzhba pipeline to an oil refinery (refinery) in the city of Schwedt, whose capacity is estimated at 10 million tons of oil. German refineries refused Russian oil, but they see a partial replacement just in deliveries from Kazakhstan.
The Russian side, represented by the official representative of Transneft, Igor Demin, previously claimed that it had not received any requests from Kazakhstani colleagues to pump oil to Germany. The maximum pumping volume in the Russian state-owned company was estimated at 7 million tons per year, while Germany's demand was 19-20 million tons per year. The European Union has refused Russian oil since December 5, when sanctions were imposed against it. Pipeline oil supplies were not included in the sanctions list, but Germany and Poland announced that they intended to voluntarily refuse supplies from Russia. Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary continue to receive Russian oil through Druzhba, an exception has been made for them.