Azernews.Az

Thursday March 28 2024

Air Astana warns of air traffic disruptions

25 September 2017 15:53 (UTC+04:00)
Air Astana warns of air traffic disruptions

By Kamila Aliyeva

Air Astana has warned over possible air traffic disruptions due to lack of fuel.

Regular air traffic in Kazakhstan is under threat due to the termination of deliveries of aviation kerosene from Russia and the forthcoming suspension of the Shymkent oil refinery, Kazinform reported referring to Air Astana.

This scenario is possible despite the State Program for Accelerated Industrial and Innovative Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2010-2016 developed upon the president’s decree dated May 15, 2009, according to the company.

One of the priority areas of the Program was the comprehensive development of the oil refining industry. The ultimate goal was to provide the domestic market with domestic aviation kerosene, gasoline and diesel fuel in 2016.

However, the situation with aviation kerosene supply exacerbated in 2017, Air Astana said.

The main companies exporting aviation kerosene in Kazakhstan are PJSC Gazprom Neft, PJSC Rosneft, PJSC Lukoil and PJSC Tatneft. The aggregate average monthly volume exported by those companies in 2017 decreased to 15,000 tons compared to 44,000 tons in 2016. Moreover, for October those companies have not confirmed the supplies due to high demand in the Russian market.

In particular, PJSC Gazprom Neft notified about the resumption of aviation kerosene export not earlier than May 2018.

In 2017, the Kazakh civil aviation’s demand is 800,000 tons of aviation kerosene, of which 241,000 tons are produced by the Shymkent Oil Refinery, which is the only stable producer of aviation kerosene in Kazakhstan. However, this plant’s activity will be stopped for maintenance in autumn 2017, the company added.

Shymkent oil refinery is located in the Sayramskiy region of Kazakhstan, and is currently undergoing a modernisation to upgrade the site's processing performance from its current 5.25Mt to 6Mt of fuel a year.

The oil refinery is operated by PetroKazakhstan Oil Products LLP, a joint venture between operators KazMunaiGas (KMG, 50%) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC, 50%).

Shymkent refinery produces various grades of petrol, diesel, aviation kerosene, liquid gas, vacuum gas oil and fuel oil.

The Energy Ministry of Kazakhstan has refuted the report, saying that Air Astana had better contacted the ministry before making such statements.

“We always discuss any problematic issue. No major repairs planned [at Shymkent] that will affect the activity of the plant,” Deputy Minister of Energy Aset Magauov said at a press conference.

Air Astana was established in 2002 as a joint venture between Kazakhstan’s Samruk Kazyna National Welfare Fund and BAE Systems.

Its main bases are Astana International Airport and Almaty International Airport. The Airline's network comprises of over 40 international and 22 domestic destinations.

--

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more