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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that Türkiye wants more Kazakh oil to reach global markets through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline as Ankara expands energy cooperation with Kazakhstan.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Astana following talks with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Erdogan describedtheTrans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), which is also known as the Middle Corridor, as the modern-day equivalent of the Silk Road and noted that its strategic importance has continued to grow.
"We will continue promoting this corridor together with Kazakhstan and our other partners not only for cargo shipments, but also for transporting energy resources to the West," Erdogan said.
The two countries signed 13 bilateral agreements after the sixth meeting of the Türkiye-Kazakhstan High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council. The deals covered sectors including trade, transportation, energy, health, mining, education, technology, and defense industries.
Among the agreements were cooperation deals between KazMunayGas and Turkish Petroleum related to oil field services and the joint development of oil and gas projects.
Erdogan noted that military and defense industry cooperation, which he said had strengthened trade and investment ties between the two countries, was also discussed during the talks.
Kazakhstan exports a portion of its crude oil via the BTC pipeline by shipping tankers from the Port of Aktau across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan. From there, the oil is integrated into the BTC system and transported through Georgia to the Port of Ceyhan in Türkiye for global distribution.
According to data from KazTransOil, 471,000 tons of Kazakh oil were shipped through the port of Aktau toward the BTC pipeline between January and April 2026. In April alone, shipments reached 125,000 tons.
Kazakh Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov previously announced that Kazakhstan plans to export between 1.5 million and 2.2 million tons of oil through the BTC pipeline in 2026.
The country exported 1.2 million tons through the route in 2025, while total oil exports reached approximately 78.7 million tons last year.
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