Kazakhstan hopes to resume oil exports via Druzhba

Kazakhstan hopes to resume oil exports to Germany via the Druzhba oil pipeline through Russian territory, as Astana considers this route commercially attractive, and it is also necessary to keep the infrastructure operating.

Kazakhstan's Minister of Energy Yerlan Akkenzhenov told reporters about this.

"I personally sent this request [to Russia about the possibility of resuming supplies], there is no answer yet. <...> We always have hope, we expect that we will resume this route. For us it is very commercially attractive, moreover, it meets, let's say, the technical requirements for operating the Atyrau-Samara pipeline. That is, it is necessary to maintain a minimum pumping volume so that this pipeline functions normally," he said, answering a question from TASS.

The minister added that this particularly concerns the winter period. "There are no heating furnaces along the stretch of the pipeline from Kazakhstan to Russia," Akkenzhenov explained.