The sharp increase in demand for Kazakhstani oil from Korea and rising raw material prices led to the Asian region becoming the leader in sales growth. The share of Asia increased from 8.9% to 14.3%. Europe is in the lead, but supplies to the West began to decline.
According to the Committee on Statistics, in January-July 2018 Kazakhstan sold to the countries of Asia more than 5.6 million tonnes of oil. This is a 58.6% increase over the same period in 2017, when sales volume amounted to 3.5 million tonnes.
The growth of supplies, coupled with an increase in raw material prices, led to a sharp increase in revenues, from $1.3 billion to $3 billion. Thus, the export of Kazakhstani oil to Asia increased 2.3 times in a year.
The key reason for the growth is a sharp increase in oil exports to Korea. This country accounts for 40% of all Asian shipments.
In seven months, the volume of exports amounted to KZT1 billion 228.6 million, which is 6 times higher than the value of January-July 2017.
With the help of Kazakh raw materials, Seoul replaces the reduction of supplies from the traditional markets of Iran, due to the threat of sanctions from the US, and Saudi Arabia. Sales increased significantly in three countries in the Asian region:
- Japan increased exports by 98.2%;
- India - by 38.4%, with a decrease in the physical volume of supplies by 0.9%;
- Singapore - 12 times.
In addition, Kazakhstan has found new markets, such as the Philippines ($63.3 million) and North Korea.
According to the Statistics Committee, in seven months, 44.8 thousand tonnes of Kazakhstan oil was sold to one of the most closed countries of the world for $25.4 million.
At the same time, supplies to China continue to decline. China, once the largest buyer of Kazakh oil, acquired only 725.2 thousand tonnes in January-July. This is almost half the figures for the same period in 2017.
In monetary terms, the decline in sales was by 30%, to $339.6 million
But even taking into account the current growth, the countries of Asia are still far from European states.
Oil exports to the West increased from 13.4 to 17.8 billion dollar.
The drop in supplies corresponded to the growth of sales by one third. Which, incidentally, was insignificant, by 0.3% to 34.67 million tonnes.
Italy remains the main buyer of Kazakh oil not only in the region, but also throughout the world.
On average, it brings to Kazakhstan 920 million dollar a month. Next are the Netherlands at $473 million per month, and France at $295 million.
Compared to 2017, shipments to Spain increased by 21.2% to 2.2 million tonnes, Romania by 41.5% to 1.9 million tonnes, and Poland increased 2.3 times to 830 thousand tonnes.
Demand from Switzerland, one of the key consumers, fell by almost 16%.
Sales volume for seven months totalled 3.34 million tonnes, which brought $1.55 billion.
In addition, demand from Croatia and Portugal fell, while these countries in 2017 were among the main buyers of Kazakh oil. The physical volume of sales to Portugal decreased by 50.9%, to 422.5 thousand tonnes for $222.8 million, to Croatia decreased by 46.1%, to 342.7 thousand tonnes, or $178.3 million.
Among other regions, the increase of oil sales to Uzbekistan should be noted. In January-July 2017, exports to this country brought $34.2 million, a year later - $61.8 million. Sales to Azerbaijan increased from 9.1 to 20.3 million dollar, and Russia increased from 9.6 to 14.5 million dollar.
Belarus, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, on the contrary, practically stopped buying Kazakhstani oil.
From the aggregate $26 million for seven months of 2017, there are less than 2.2 million. As for the remaining markets, sales are carried out only to North America.
In 2017, Canada was the only buyer there for 357.3 thousand tonnes at $129.6 million, and in 2018 this place was occupied by the USA at 269.6 thousand tonnes for $160.2 million.
Reported by 365INFO (Kazakhstan).
