Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Vector Energy, a trading subsidiary of Rompetrol Group, which is registered in Switzerland, will complete the integration of all oil marketing operations within Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGas national oil and gas company and will be renamed into KazMunaiGas Trading AG, KazMunaiGas said on Tuesday.

It is planned that KazMunaiGas Trading AG will become the only national operator exporting Kazakh crude oil.

KazMunaiGas Trading AG will be responsible for the sale of crude and oil products as well as development of the logistics assets required to meet its own needs, developing trading operations and entering new markets, a statement said.

"Taking into account a number of factors (the development of the Kashagan field, as well as the planned production volume in Kazakhstan until 2020 in the amount of 140 million tons of crude oil), we expect to increase the exports of crude oil from Kazakhstan to 30 million tons per year for the next five years," Director General of the
KazMunaiGas-ownedRompetrol Group JannatTusupbekov said. "The crude oil marketing operations will be more profitable and efficient thanks to the developed resource base of Rompetrol Group. It will promote Kazakhstan's national brand in the international market of crude oil."

As of 2012, the sales volume of crude oil by the trading subsidiary of Rompetrol Group increased by more than 65 percent to 10.4 million tons. The total sales volume of oil products reached 4.69 million tons, 2.74 million tons of which were produced at the Petromidia oil refinery.

Oil products were delivered to the markets of Bulgaria, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, France, Spain, Turkey, Serbia, Greece and Lebanon.

The development of transportlogistics infrastructure has significantly reduced the costs of loading and uploading operations. Moreover, the new infrastructure will continue integrating all of KazMunaiGas assets in the Black Sea region.

Besides the activity on marketing and transportation of crude oil and oil products, Rompetrol Group controls tank farms with total capacity of 1.1 million cubic meters, located in Romania, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine.

Rompetrol Group became the largest exporter of oil products in Romania with total volume of export operations worth $1.7 billion in 2012 thanks to the efficient investment policy in the sphere of logistics.

KazMunaiGas is Kazakhstan's national operator for exploration, production, processing and transportation of hydrocarbons. All the shares of KazMunaiGas are owned by the sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna.

Rompetrol Group is one of the well-established oil companies operating in Romania and an important player in the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions. The group is primarily active in refining, marketing and trading, with additional operations in exploration and production, and other oil industry services such as drilling and transportation.

In 2007, the acquisition of Rompetrol Group by KazMunaiGas transformed Rompetrol into an energy bridge between the natural resources in Central Asia and the markets all over Europe.