Kazakhstan carried out the first test shipment of its oil from the Kashagan field through the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan. This was announced on Monday by Kaztransoil and the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO).

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Oil from the Kashagan field, located in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, was delivered to the Kazakh port of Aktau, and from there to Baku. The tanker " First cargo - 6900 tons of crude oil.

Kazakhstan has large oil reserves, but has no access to the sea, except for the Caspian. Oil was exported from Kazakhstan through a terminal in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. And from there, raw materials were sent by sea to their destinations..

Recall that Russia blocked the supply of cheaper Central Asian hydrocarbons for almost two decades.. In July 2022, Kazakhstan announced. that he is ready to replace Russian oil in Europe.

The country even changed the name of its oil so that it would not be confused with Russian. Now it is called " Prior to this, oil produced in Kazakhstan was blended with Russian oil to obtain standardized export grades - Russian Export Blend of Crude Oil (REBCO/Urals) and Siberian Light.

After that, Russia immediately blocked the only route through which Kazakhstan supplies oil to Europe..

The route accounted for more than 80% of the volumes of oil pumped through the pipeline from Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan's largest oil field also exploded following Tokayev's promise to increase supplies to Europe.

However, this did not stop Kazakhstan. And already in September it became known that the Kazakh oil state company Kazmunaigas was conducting preliminary negotiations with the trading division of the Azerbaijani state company SOCAR on permission to sell 1.5 million tons of Kazakh oil per year through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline..