Kazakhstan may oblige energy companies to prioritize supplies to local market

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Oil and Gas has suggested only signing new contracts to produce hydrocarbons with entities willing to ensure supplies to the domestic market in the first place, Newskaz.ru reports, citing the country’s Minister of Oil and Gas Uzakbai Karabalin as saying. “One of the pressing issues when constructing a 4th oil refinery in Kazakhstan is to ensure sufficient crude. Therefore the Ministry suggests obliging entities signing new subsurface use contracts to supply crude to the domestic market; another suggestion is to consider redirecting oil supplies of oil production entities currently in operation to the domestic market and to enhance price regulation in the petroleum products market (…)”, he said. “Thus, we could develop the resource base both for crude processing and petrochemistry industries (…) A major challenge is to maintain the low inflation rate”, he said. The Minister reminded that in his Address to the Nation as of January 17, President Nazarbayev instructed to accelerate prep works to construct a 4th oil refinery. With this instruction in mind and given that the three Kazakhstan-based oil refineries currently in operation will be overhauled by 2016, the demand for crude at the domestic market may exceed the supply. “The work is under way (…) the Ministry in partnership with KazMunaiGas Oil and Gas Company will decide on location, sources of crude and timeline of construction by the end of the Q1 2014”, he said. In his turn, the country’s Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov reminded that Kazakhstan anualy imports about 2 million tons of petroleum products. “The issue of sufficient supplies to the local refineries need solving badly”, he stressed.