MOSCOW (Interfax) – Kazakhstan does not plan to increase oil production in 2018 from the current 1.8 mln barrels per day despite the OPEC+ decision to increase production, Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev told reporters.

However, Kazakhstan’s oil output rose 6.2% year-on-year in the first half of 2018 to 45.2 mln tonnes.

Meantime, South Korea has imported four times more Kazakhs CPC Blend crude so far in 2018 than in the same period last year, as the major Asian oil consumer seeks to replace Iranian supplies. South Korea bought 4 mln tonnes of CPC Blend for delivery in January to July this year, compared to 1 mln tonnes in the same seven-month period of 2017.

South Korea, which consumes about 3% of the world’s oil output, is increasingly buying CPC Blend as its refiners prepare to halt imports from Iran and comply with U.S. sanctions on Tehran that will kick-in from November.