Astana, 26 October. In January–August 2026 Kazakhstan imported 360 tonnes of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), compared with 1,500 tonnes in the same period of 2025, while rail exports of the component rose by 2,000 tonnes to 4,700 tonnes, according to market participants.
MTBE is an oxygen-containing additive blended into petrol to raise its octane number, that is, its resistance to knocking in an engine: this is how AI-92 and AI-95 petrol is made from a low-octane base. Two companies produce MTBE in Kazakhstan. Shymkent Chemical Company (SCC) launched a unit with a capacity of 57,000 tonnes a year in July 2021 and sends most of its output to the neighbouring Shymkent refinery. In Pavlodar, Neftekhim Ltd has run a unit of about 20,000 tonnes a year since 2009, and all its MTBE goes by pipeline to the Pavlodar refinery.
The rise in exports is linked to planned maintenance at the Shymkent refinery from late March to late April: the plant used less MTBE during that time, and SCC, the only exporter of rail shipments of the product, sent the freed-up volumes abroad.
What it means: Kazakhstan now supplies its refineries almost entirely with its own octane-boosting additive and has become an exporter of it. This is one element of the domestic petrol market's independence from imports.
Who benefits: Shymkent Chemical Company gains export revenue; refineries get a stable supply of the additive without imports paid in foreign currency.
Background: Kazakhstan produces almost all its own petrol: in January–July 2026 imports of motor petrol fell 4.6-fold to 107.8 tonnes, while diesel imports rose 1.7-fold to 264,700 tonnes. The average price of AI-92 in August was 244 tenge a litre, 10.9% higher than a year earlier.
