Aviation fuel shortage hampers development of Kazakhstan’s civil aviation - minister

ASTANA. KAZINFORM – Shortage of aviation fuel in the domestic market and its high price are the main bottlenecks in the development of civil aviation in Kazakhstan, Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Marat Karabayev said Tuesday, Kazinform correspondent reports.

In his report at the Government’s meeting, Minister Karabayev said those are the main reasons domestic airports are less competitive compared to the airports in neighboring countries in attracting transit companies. In turn, according to Karabayev, it negatively affects Kazakhstan’s transit potential.

The minister added that Kazakhstani air companies are dogged by the unstable situation in the aviation fuel market and are unable to meet the growing demand in new international flights.

«Producing capacity of domestic oil refineries does not cover the demand for aviation fuel. Hence, we are forced to import the aviation fuel from the Russian Federation,» Marat Karabayev noted.

According to the ministry, last year Kazakhstan produced some 648,000 tons of aviation fuel and consumed 806,000 tons of aviation fuel, recording a 24 per cent deficit. Some 158,000 tons of aviation fuel were imported from the Russian Federation.

To solve the problem, Kazakhstan needs to step up production of aviation fuel up to 1 million tons per year to avoid deficit and lessen its dependence on aviation fuel imports.