Germany is set to ink two agreements aimed at boosting oil imports from Kazakhstan for Berlin's primary Schwedt oil refinery, sources informed Reuters on Sunday.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is scheduled to visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on Monday and Tuesday, marking his inaugural trip to Central Asia. This visit comes as Berlin seeks new markets and energy and mineral resources in the aftermath of the Ukraine conflict.
Under the proposed deals, a monthly supply of 100,000 metric tonnes of crude oil will be guaranteed until the end of 2025, with an additional contract securing up to 50,000 tonnes per month. The PCK Schwedt refinery has already been receiving these extra volumes for three months, but they will now be formally contracted.
Kazakh oil imports have sustained the Schwedt refinery's operations following a significant decline in Russian oil supplies due to European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow for its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Representatives from Rosneft Deutschland, the German subsidiary of Russia's Rosneft, which Berlin placed under trusteeship last year, will sign the agreements in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
In 2023, Kazakhstan exported 8.5 million tonnes of oil to Germany, representing 11.7% of Germany's total oil imports, a notable increase from around 6.5 million tonnes prior to the Ukraine war. This surge has positioned Kazakhstan as Germany's third-largest oil supplier, trailing only Norway and the United States, according to data from Germany's Federal Statistics Office.
