Русский
Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas (KMG) has reallocated oil exports to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) system and Russian ports amid the suspension of transit via the Druzhba pipeline, KMG has stated. The issue is the continuing delay from Ukraine in opening the Druzhba pipeline to Germany.
The Druzhba pipeline is one of the world’s longest oil pipelines and one of the largest oil pipeline networks in the world. It should carry oil over 4,000 km from the eastern part of European Russia and Kazakhstan to points in Ukraine from where it is directed to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany. The network also branches out into numerous smaller pipelines to deliver oil throughout Eastern Europe and beyond.
As the EU has sanctioned Russian and Belarussian oil pipelines, Germany’s supplies now come via Ukraine, transiting several EU nations as they do so. They enter Germany from the Czech border town of Litvinov.
With European supplies from Russia now abandoned, Ukraine has been using its oil transit supply chains as a mechanism to obtain what it wants from the European Union instead. For example, in July 2024, Ukraine cut supplies to Hungary and Slovakia for what Kiev said were problems caused by Russian attacks, which coincided with political differences between these countries over EU loans to Ukraine. However, Russia has denied any attacks on the pipeline took place, while Ukraine has refused to allow European inspectors to visit the site.
Kazakhstan meanwhile cannot just cease pumping oil as this would cause damage to its own extraction systems. The Kazakh Energy Ministry has stated that instead of to Druzhba, it would redirect an immediate 260,000 tonnes of oil, commencing May 1 to Russia’s Ust-Luga Port on the Baltic Sea, and to the Caspian Pipeline system.
Kazakhstan had planned to ship about 3 million tonnes of oil to Germany via Druzhba in 2026. In 2025, deliveries to the Schwedt refinery totaled 2.1 million tonnes. In the first quarter of 2026, Kazakhstan doubled its oil shipments to Germany, reaching 730,000 tonnes, but this will now cease.
Germany requires oil imports of about 75 million tonnes per annum, meaning the Kazakh loss equates to about 2.5% of its annual needs. Kazakhstan began shipping oil to Germany through the Transneft pipeline system in 2023, with deliveries made to the Adamowo Zastawa transfer point. That has been suspended due to sanctions.
