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Kazakhs, Azeris Try to Find New Oil Routes

Kazakhstan, which plans to double oil production in the next decade, is in talks with Azerbaijan to find new routes for delivering its extra crude volumes to the Black Sea and beyond.

The countries are considering various options, including construction of a new pipeline, to add to the volumes now shipped by tanker, Kazakh and Azeri officials said Friday.

Timur Kulibayev, deputy chief executive of Kazakh state welfare fund Samruk-Kazyna, said the planned increase in output — particularly from the Kashagan field, due to pump its first oil in 2012 — would create a need for more transit capacity. “We held talks with Azerbaijan’s state oil company yesterday and agreed to consider an additional route for shipping Kazakh oil … to the Black Sea,” Kulibayev said at a briefing.

He said the crude could then be delivered to Rompetrol, a Romanian oil products company owned by Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGas.

Rovnag Abdullayev, chief executive of Azeri state oil firm SOCAR, told the same briefing that Azerbaijan was looking at several options to increase deliveries of Kazakh oil.

“It could be both the existing Baku-Supsa pipeline and, if necessary, a new pipeline to the Black Sea,” Abdullayev said.

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