Drops from the sea: Russia has begun to expand the geography of gasoline imports
The Condensate oil refinery, located in Aksai, will supply about 70% of its products to Russia — gasoline and diesel fuel, the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan said. Imports from this country, along with Belarus, are the most profitable in terms of delivery times and logistics costs, experts explained. This is how it differs from supplies from, for example, India. At the same time, Kazakhstan will not be able to provide large volumes — annual purchases of gasoline from the same Condensate will not exceed 140 thousand tons — this is the daily consumption of the Russian market. But they will still have a positive impact on the supply of fuel to at least the regions bordering this country. The information about which partners Russia is increasing imports of petroleum products and how it is diversifying is in the Izvestia article.
How much fuel can Kazakhstan supply
Kazakhstan will accept Russian oil for processing at the Condensate refinery, and then send about 70% of the produced oil products back to Russia. This was announced on August 25 by the country's Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov.
This plant was built at the Karachaganak field to provide diesel fuel and gasoline to the West Kazakhstan region. In 2017, it increased its capacity from 650 to 850 thousand tons of petroleum products per year. But it can produce a maximum of 200 thousand tons of gasoline. With 70% of this volume shipped to Russia, shipments will amount to 140 thousand tons per year, which is an approximate consumption level of the Russian market per day, said Sergey Tereshkin, CEO of Open Oil Market.
According to Alexey Belogoryev, Director of Research and Development at the Institute of Energy and Finance, Condensate will be able to supply up to 10,000 tons of gasoline per month to Russia.
"It's better than nothing, but I don't think global saturation of the market [due to this supplier] is expected," said Dmitry Gusev, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Reliable Partner Association.
Nationwide, 120-140 thousand tons per year is a small figure, but these supplies can produce significant amounts of gasoline and diesel for certain regions of the Russian Federation bordering northwestern Kazakhstan, such as the Orenburg, Samara or Saratov regions. Condensate is likely to supply Euro-5 standard fuel, Alexey Belogoryev believes.
Despite the relatively small volumes, imports from Kazakhstan will also play an important role because prices for such fuel will be lower than for purchases from abroad. For example, the delivery time and total logistics costs will be lower than when importing gasoline from India, Sergey Tereshkin explained.
Which countries does Russia import fuel from?
In mid-August, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak called imports one of the key measures to stabilize the situation in the domestic fuel market. In July, the government expanded the import damper mechanism for oil companies to encourage the import of gasoline and diesel. Izvestia requested information on current import volumes from the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation and the office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Russia has been most active in increasing imports from Belarus. According to Reuters, citing industry sources, shipments reached record levels in July — 212 thousand tons of gasoline and 162 thousand tons of diesel. In the first seven months of 2026, compared with the same period in 2025, the supply of these fuels from Belarus increased by 25 and 7 times, respectively.
Reuters also reported, citing data from ship tracking systems, that Russia imported about 30 thousand tons of AI-92 gasoline from Morocco, and almost the same amount from South Korea.
Shipments from India have also begun. As previously reported by Izvestia, in mid-August, a large shipment of fuel from this country arrived on tankers in Murmansk, but was not shipped for several days due to a lack of price agreements. The cost of the batch was high, and its purchase for resale in the domestic market of the Russian Federation for oil companies could mean a sale in the negative. But, according to the Izvestia source, from July 19 to July 21, more than 1 thousand tons of gasoline from India were sold on the stock exchange. The transaction price was 105 thousand rubles per ton. According to the source, Indian gasoline can also be sold off-exchange.
However, Alexey Belogoryev believes that all sea shipments to the European part of Russia — and above all from India — involve high transportation costs, often involving transshipment directly at sea from ship to ship. In terms of cost and delivery time, they are ineffective, the expert explained. That is why, in his opinion, Belarus will remain Russia's key partner in this area. Although its rail shipments fell in August compared to July, the country still provides almost half of Russia's imports.
"Fuel supplies from neighboring countries are very important for the Russian market, that is, mainly from Belarus and Kazakhstan," Kirill Rodionov, an independent energy expert, agreed. — The prices of oil products from these countries are more or less comparable to Russian domestic prices. There is clear pricing, logistics, and delivery times are much shorter than in the case of India.
But supplies from different countries are due to the fact that Russia is trying to diversify fuel purchases for the domestic market in order not to depend on one country, Dmitry Gusev explained. He noted that fuel standards in all countries are about the same, and Russia can import fuel from both Euro-2, Euro-3, Euro-4, and Euro-5.
Experts also agreed that supplies from Asian countries are more convenient for the regions of the Far East.
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