Kazakhstan suspends Russian fuel imports from Thursday

ALMA-ATA, Mar 4 (PRIME) -- Kazakhstan has suspended imports of Russian fuel from Thursday because the devaluation of the ruble made it too cheap, according to an Energy Ministry’s statement published Wednesday.

The ministry and state oil and gas company KazMunayGas earlier expressed concern that the inflow of Russian oil may block operations of local refineries.

Under an agreement with Russia, Kazakhstan may import 1.1 million tonnes of gasoline and 760,000 tonnes of diesel fuel from Russia duty free in 2015.

Kazakhstan scheduled negotiations with Moscow to protect the local market from the Russian ruble devaluation for March.

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