ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan wants Chinese oil refineries to process some of its crude to reduce its dependence on Russia for refined fuels, its oil and gas minister said Monday at a government meeting.
"In order to reduce our dependence on Russia, we are agreeing on tolling [third-party processing], including with Chinese refineries," Sauat Mynbayev said, adding that talks were under way on the supply of between 1 million and 1.5 million tons of crude for processing at the Dushanzi refinery in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.
Mynbayev also said state company KazMunaiGas would purchase 50,000 tons of gasoline from Russia at a loss, to be compensated by sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, in an attempt to cap rising prices as it grapples with a prolonged summer gasoline shortage.
(Reuters)
