Kazakhstan's state shipping company Kazmortransflot said on Wednesday it was in talks with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on a loan to build three oil tankers estimated at $42 million.
Oil-rich but landlocked Kazakhstan is stepping up crude oil exports via the Caspian, and its only seaport Aktau plans to upgrade its oil shipping capacity to 200,000 bpd this year, counting on more crude for re-export to the Mediterranean.
Kazmortransflot said each of the three tankers it was planning to buy would have a deadweight capacity of 12,000 tonnes.
Kazmortransflot currently accounts for 51 percent of all oil exports via Aktau. The company said its own oil transportation had risen by 70 percent in January-June of this year and stood at 1.961 million tonnes (79,000 bpd).
The company has no tankers of its own and has to rent them from littoral neighbour Russia and Azerbaijan.
The first of the three Russian-built tankers is expected to make its maiden trip across the Caspian in November this year, Kazmortransflot said.