EU envoy expresses concern over major Kazakh pipeline that transits Russia

The European Union expects Kazakhstan to enforce Western sanctions against Russia, and remains concerned about ‘the functionality and operation’ of a major pipeline that transits through Russian territory, EU Special Envoy for Sanctions David O’Sullivan told reporters in the Central Asian nation.

‘I would like to make it clear that from the very beginning we announced our position that we respect Kazakhstan’s decision not to join the sanctions and we never asked Kazakhstan to do so,’ Sullivan said at a press conference in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

‘All we ask from Kazakhstan is to ensure that sanctions are not circumvented through the territory of Kazakhstan, so that the country does not become a platform for circumventing sanctions that were imposed by the G7 countries,’ he said, quoted by the KazTag news agency. ‘We are grateful to Kazakhstan for its assurances and guarantees that this will not happen and that military items will not be redirected or re-exported to Russia,’ he commented.

Sullivan said that remains a concern for the European Union, explaining that ‘the Kazakh side has a couple of problematic issues that we are discussing now,’ particularly concerning ‘the functionality and operation of the CPC pipeline.’

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, or CPC, is one of the world’s largest international oil transportation projects, which involves Russia, Kazakhstan and several global oil majors, including US giants Exxon and Chevron.

Oil transiting through Russian territory via the CPC was given a special sanctions exemption by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) in 2022.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new decree which threatens the seizure of properties owned by US companies in exchange for any annexation of frozen Russian assets by the United States.

‘U.S. and foreign entities are now in jeopardy because of Putin’s new decree.  Among these is the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) pipeline which transfers more than 80% of Kazakhstan’s crude oil to Western markets,’ the Caspian Policy Center, a think tank based in Washington D.C., said in an article last month.

https://kaztag.kz/en/news/we-respect-kazakhstan-s-decision-not-to-join-sanctions-eu-envoy