The volume of Kazakh KEBCO oil shipped via Russian ports fell by 19% in September on a daily basis to 0.64 million metric tons from 0.82 million tons in August, according to market sources with knowledge of the matter, LSEG data and Reuters calculations.
The drop in Kazakh oil loadings from Russian ports last month was due to a decline in oil and gas condensate production in August amid power outages, Reuters sources said.
Kazakh oil production, which accounts for almost 2% of global output, fell by about 3% on a daily basis in August from July to 7.06 million tons, or 1.66 million barrels per day.
Italy, Romania and Turkey remained the key buyers of KEBCO crude in September, traders’ data showed.
Last month the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisks loaded 0.44 million tons of KEBCO bound for Turkey (0.28 million tonnes) and Romania (0.16 million tonnes), while the Baltic port of Ust-Luga loaded 0.2 million tons of the grade for delivery to Italy.
Kazakhstan exports two main oil grades: CPC Blend via the CPC pipeline and KEBCO via Russia’s Transneft pipeline system.
As there are no differences in quality between KEBCO and Urals, Kazakhstan renamed its oil that transits via Russia KEBCO (Kazakhstan Export Blend Crude Oil) in June 2022 to avoid issues with marketing.