Kazakhstan's energy minister said on Wednesday that no Kazakh oil was scheduled to flow via Russia's Druzhba pipeline to Germany in May, a disruption he said had likely been caused by Ukrainian drone strikes.
Minister Erlan Akkenzhenov said Russia had informally told Kazakhstan that it does not have the technical capacity to ship Kazakh oil to Germany, and that exports would resume once the capacity is restored. He did not provide more specific detail.
"As soon as the issue regarding technical feasibility is resolved, the transit of Kazakh oil will resume," he said, while attending an environmental summit in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
"Most likely, this is linked to recent strikes on Russian infrastructure."
Kazakhstan exported some two million tonnes of oil to Germany in 2025, or more than 40,000 barrels a day. Exports flow to the PCK refinery, which supplies Berlin.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Russia is set to stop oil exports from Kazakhstan to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline starting from May 1.
Akkenzhenov also said Kazakhstan would not reduce oil production as a result of the halt to exports to Germany, and that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, via which the bulk of Kazakh oil exports are shipped through Russia, was working as normal.
(Reporting by Tamara Vaal, Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Kim Coghill and Jacqueline Wong)