BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 7. Kazakhstan's
Kurultai (parliament) adopted in two readings a law ratifying the
Protocol on the resumption of the Agreement between the governments
of Kazakhstan and Russia on trade and economic cooperation in the
supply of oil and oil products to Kazakhstan dated December 9,
2010, and amendments to it, according to the Kurultai press
service.
"The protocol preserves the mechanism for annually agreeing on
indicative balances of oil and oil product supplies and exchanging
information between the competent authorities of the two countries,
as well as the possibility of duty-free imports of oil products
from Russia", the Kurultai's press service said.
Maintaining the duty-free regime is of practical importance for
meeting Kazakhstan's domestic market needs for certain types of oil
products. Expected savings in 2026 will amount to about 30 billion
tenge ($67.9 million).
Of this amount, 5.59 billion tenge ($12.7 million) will be
attributable to gasoline, 15.75 billion tenge ($35.6 million) to
diesel fuel and 8.61 billion tenge ($19.5 million) to jet fuel.
The resumption of the agreement will also provide an
international legal framework for cooperation in forming the
indicative balance of oil and oil product supplies.
Thus, ratification of the protocol is important not only for
continuing Kazakhstan-Russia trade and economic cooperation, but
also for maintaining the stability of Kazakhstan's domestic oil
product market and its energy security.
The US dollar equivalents are calculated at the exchange rate of
441.88 tenge per $1.
