Russia Asks Kazakhstan For Fuel After Refinery Production Collapse

There may not be enough gasoline in the country.

The Russian authorities asked Kazakhstan for help due to the threat of gasoline shortage after Ukrainian drone strikes and floods collapsed production at oil refineries, writes The Moscow Times.

According to Reuters, citing three sources in the industry, Moscow asked the Kazakh authorities to create a reserve of gasoline in case there is a shortage in Russia.

According to one of the sources of the agency, the volume of the request is 100,000 tons. "We signed the agreement, everything was formalized within the indicative balance sheet," the source explained to Reuters.

Other agency sources wonder if Kazakhstan will be able to fulfil the Kremlin's request: the country has gasoline reserves of only 307,000 tons of AI-92 and 58.700 tons of AI-95. Currently, only the Atyrau refinery can produce K5 gasoline (Euro-5), while the Shymkent refinery is under repair (from March 25 to May 8), and then the Pavlodar refinery is scheduled to be repaired (June-July).

At the end of March, Russia had already asked Belarus for help with gasoline. According to the head of the State Duma Energy Committee, Pavel Zavalny, an agreement was reached on purchases in the amount of 100,000–150,000 tons per month.

Reuters sources note that Russian refineries' situation promises a fuel shortage. Already "in May, Russia may not have enough gasoline for the domestic market," said one of the agency's sources.

They say that the authorities' response may be to tighten the ban on the export of gasoline in force from March 1: it can be extended to the EAEU countries as well.

According to Rosstat, in the three weeks of March, Russia lost 10.1% of gasoline production and almost 4% of diesel fuel output after a series of drone raids that stopped processing at refineries in Ryazan, Syzran and Samara.

Last weekend, the Orsk refinery of the Forteinvest company stopped because of the flood. Last year, the refinery processed 4.5 million tons of oil and produced 0.8 million tons of motor gasoline and 2.2 million tons of diesel fuel.