A terminal in the Black Sea intended for the export of Kazakh oil has to stop operating for 30 days by order of a court in southern Russia, as the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday night. Most recently, there had been disagreements between Russia and the neighboring Central Asian ex-Soviet republic because of the Ukraine war.
“Should there be any interruptions in delivery, this does not affect OMV at all at the moment,” said OMV spokesman Andreas Rinofner on Wednesday. After the accident in the Schwechat refinery, OMV could only process crude oil to a very limited extent anyway. After the Schwechat plant has been repaired, Rinofner assumes that he will be able to replace Kazakh oil elsewhere on the market, he said.
Surprise closure
The operating company Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) is “forced to implement the court decision”, but will appeal against it, according to a statement by the company. According to official information, the documentation for the emergency plan for the elimination of any oil spills is incomplete. The authorities had originally given CPC until November 30 to eliminate the violations, but in a court hearing on Tuesday, the regional transport supervisory authority surprisingly called for the terminal to be closed – and was right.
80 percent of the oil exported from Kazakhstan flows through the terminal in the southern Russian port city of Novorossiysk – Kazakhstan does not have its own access to the world’s oceans. The handling capacity is 67 million tons of oil per year. Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev recently offered the EU to deliver more oil and gas to Europe to ensure the continent’s energy security despite the Ukraine war and the associated sanctions against Russia. Kazakhstan has not recognized the independence of Moscow-backed separatist republics in eastern Ukraine.
The most important supplier countries for Austria
Stable deliveries from Kazakhstan are of great importance for Austria’s oil supply. In 2020, 36.6 percent of all crude oil imports came from the resource-rich but poor country. In 2019 it was even 39.2 percent and in 2021 38.9 percent. This makes Kazakhstan Austria’s most important oil supplier by far. The second most important supplier country in 2021 was Libya with a share of 22.1 percent, followed by Iraq with 20.7 and Russia with 7.8 percent.
Until recently, OMV itself produced oil in Kazakhstan via its Romanian subsidiary OMV Petrom. Despite the sale of the plants and oil fields last year, Kazakh crude oil still accounts for around a third of the quantity of crude oil processed in the Schwechat refinery – the refinery’s capacity is around 9.6 million tons per year. The oil comes via the port of Trieste and then by pipeline to Schwechat. The Schwechat refinery also processes oil from Libya, Iraq and Norway, among others. After an accident, however, the plant is currently at a standstill anyway.
Gas emergency plan: Large consumers are instructed to convert as far as possible to alternative energy sources – above all oil.
Source: Nachrichten
