Kazakhstan and Turkey are exploring boosting Kazakh oil exports through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, the press service of the head of Kazakhstan reported.

The discussions, which took place on Tuesday during a meeting between Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan, signal a potential diversification of energy routes for the landlocked Central Asian nation.

While specific details were not released, the talks focused on cooperation in the energy sector, including "prospects for increasing exports via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline," the statement said. 

The leaders also addressed broader collaboration in power generation, agriculture, and mining as part of a high-level strategic cooperation council meeting.

Kazakhstan has already seen a 12% increase in oil exports through the BTC pipeline in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year, reaching 785,000 tons (approximately 34,000 barrels per day), state statistics show. 

Oil is transported by tankers across the Caspian Sea from Kazakhstan's Aktau port to Baku, Azerbaijan, before entering the BTC pipeline. 

However, increasing these volumes would necessitate upgrades to the Aktau port and require Kazakh crude to meet specific quality standards for the pipeline, prompting Kazakhstan to explore options bypassing Russian ports, which currently handle the majority of its oil shipments to international markets. 

Kazakhstan's exports bypassing Russia accounted for only 5.9% of the country's total exported volume of 32.6 million tonnes in the first six months of 2025, a share that has remained consistent since 2024. 

In 2022, President Tokayev advocated for increased oil exports that circumvent Russia, leading to an agreement between Kazakhstan's Kazmunaigaz and Azerbaijan’s SOCAR to transport 1.5 million tonnes of oil annually from the Tengiz oil field to the BTC.

The nation's development plan through 2029 includes considering the construction of a trans-Caspian oil pipeline and marine terminals on both the Kazakh and Azerbaijani coasts of the Caspian Sea.

Turkey’s recent discussions with Kazakhstan come just days after Ankara announced terminating the decades-old oil pipeline agreement with Iraq in July 2026, seeking a new ‘vibrant phase’of the agreement that would benefit both parties. Later, Ankara sent Baghdad a draft proposal for a new agreement. 

On Monday, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar revealed that the anticipated new energy deal between Turkey and Iraq must incorporate an approach to secure full usage of the two countries’ oil pipelines, according to a local media outlet, Iraqi News.