Kazakhstan exported 17 million tons of oil in 1998

The Kazakh government announced recently that 17 million tons of crude oil and gas condensate had been exported from the country in 1998, including 14.97 million tons of crude oil.
Some 2.134 million tons of the oil went to Russia, while 3.085 million tons went to other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and 9.753 million tons went to countries outside the former Soviet Union. No comparative figures from 1997 were provided.

Meanwhile, the Russian government indicated that it was planning to reduce the amount of Kazakh oil exported through the Russian Federation this year. Russia's former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov in December of 1998 signed a deal with Kazakh Premier Nurlan Balgimbayev on raising the quota to 7 million tons per year, but the new cabinet is apparently not willing to preserve the agreement.
Balgimbayev was reportedly preparing to travel to Moscow for talks on the issue.