Kazakhstan has accelerated oil exports to bypass Russia in the first quarter of 2023 as it seeks to reduce its dependence on its big neighbor, industry sources and Refinitiv said, Reuters reported.

Although Kazakhstan’s oil exports through the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus are relatively small, they have increased sharply since Moscow launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine last February.

Kazakhstan, which has the longest land border with Russia of any former Soviet state, has taken a delicate path to reduce its dependence on Russia without alienating its neighbor.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has refused to recognize regions of Ukraine annexed by Russia and has sought to limit Kazakhstan’s dependence on Russia, including its vast network of oil pipelines and ports.

Crude shipments from the Caspian port of Aktau to Azerbaijan’s Baku, the main one-way route bypassing Russia, jumped to 163,436 tonnes in January-March from 28,875 tonnes in the same period in 2022, Reuters data showed.

Kazmortransflot, Kazakhstan’s state transport company, told Reuters that another 104,000 tonnes of oil had been sent to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline between January and March.

Kazakhstan also supplies China with more than 80,000 tons of oil per month.

Last year, non-Russian oil exports from Kazakhstan reached 1.8 million tons (36,000 barrels per day), which is 638,000 tons more than in 2021.

Kazakh oil is not subject to Western sanctions, unlike Russian, although the sanctions have created problems for some Kazakh products.

The main and most profitable route for the export of oil from Kazakhstan remains the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (KPC), which supplies oil to the world market through the Russian terminal on the Black Sea.

CPC shipments fell 1 percent last year to 51.99 million tons, but still accounted for more than 80 percent of Kazakhstan’s total oil exports.