Pipeliners

22 May 2008 – Upstream OnLine – Kazakh Deputy Energy Minister Lyazzat Kiinov said today Kazakhstan is seeking new routes to Europe for its increasing oil and gas exports, partly in an effort to free itself from an oil pipeline to Russia’s port of Novorossiysk. “Kazakhstan has a huge export capacity and we are studying all possible ways to increase shipments,” Bloomberg quoted Kiinov as saying. “We are committed to increasing fuel exports, year by year.” Kiinov said the country will seek to produce as much as 130 million metric tons of oil in 2015. Kazakhstan pumped 66.1 million tons in 2006, Bloomberg said, referring to BP. Kiinov said projects to export 2 million tons of liquefied natural gas by the end of 2015 are also under consideration. He said the country has reserves of as much as 8 trillion cubic metres of gas. Kazakhstan is the former Soviet Union’s largest energy producer after Russia and is estimated to hold 3.3% of the world’s reserves.