Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 27
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The project to expand the main pipeline Uzen-Atyrau-Samara may be implemented in 2017 subject to the Kazakh oil producers' interest, said Askar Kenjekhanov, deputy director general of the Kazakh Energy Ministry's Oil and Gas Information Center.
He made the remarks during the "SOCAR International Caspian and Central Asia Downstream Conference - Trading, Logistics, Refining, Petrochemicals" in Baku.
The Uzen-Atyrau-Samara pipeline gives opportunity for Kazakh oil to enter the European markets through the Baltic and Black Sea ports, said Kenjekhanov.
"In accordance with the joint action plan of Kazakhstan and Russia it was decided to study the need to expand the oil pipeline's capacity up to 35 million tons per year," he said. "Currently, the feasibility study is being developed for the pipeline's Russian part and for Russian Transneft's oil pipeline system from Samara to Novorossiysk port."
The Uzen-Atyrau-Samara oil pipeline is the main oil pipeline. It was constructed from Uzen field to Atyrau refinery and further is linked to Transneft oil pipelines' system in the direction of Samara.
The maximum capacity of the pipeline is 30 million tons of oil per year.
Kazakhstan exported 12.4 million tons of oil via Atyrau-Samara pipeline in 2015.
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