BC Insight reports Tengizchevroil sulfur production of 2.7 million tonnes in 2021, 2.65 million tonnes in 2022, and 2.4 million tonnes in 2023. Combined with Kashagan stock drawdowns, Kazakhstan began lifting exports toward record levels into 2024, mainly by rail via Russia to Ust-Luga for Morocco and Africa. The item is at https://www.bcinsight.crugroup.com/2025/01/31/sulphur-in-central-asia-2/.
A 2.4 million tonne Tengiz year is still a world-scale recovered stream. The 2023 dip versus 2021-22 is output. The export spike is stock plus remaining production. Strict storage regulations mean almost all Tengiz and Kashagan sulfur is exported rather than blocked long term. That is not Canadian remelt economics. It is a regulatory must-run.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through Vancouver. Kazakh tonnes leave by rail to Russian Baltic ports. Morocco taking about 73 percent of Kazakh sulfur sales in the later 2024 export programme is an Atlantic phosphate bid. Vancouver does not serve that Ust-Luga-to-Jorf Lasfar lane. The two origins meet in world balances, not on the same vessel.
CRU later expected Kazakh exports to normalize near 3.5 million tonnes a year from 2026, before transit bans intervened. Russia's late-2025 industrial sulfur export ban, tied to Astrakhan damage, and 2026 rail curbs then a June 2026 Kazakh export suspension, closed that door. 2023 is when the spike began, not when it ended. About 0.3 million tonnes a month through Russian ports is the later trade-press run-rate.
Wellhead Management at Tengiz later lifted 2024 sulfur toward 2.65 million tonnes. BC Insight's January 2025 Central Asia feature stressed that Tengiz Future Growth Project oil gains reinject associated gas and therefore do not add sulfur export volumes. Do not count FGP barrels as extra Kazakh cargoes. 2023's 2.4 million tonne Tengiz print is the Claus reality behind the export story.
Tampa at $55 in mid-July 2023, USGS, is the Florida contract those extra Kazakh tonnes were competing against in world phosphate. Canadian FOB at $72 in December is the Pacific print. A surplus that includes a Kazakh stock draw is why North American remelt slowed. CRU's contrast stands: Canada remelt is price-driven; Kazakh draws are not.
USGS MCS 2024 still listed Kazakhstan at 9 percent of US elemental sulfur imports for 2019-22. Some of those tonnes arrived as solids into the Gulf. Most of the 2023-24 spike went to Morocco and Africa via Ust-Luga. Two destinations, one rail-to-Baltic logistics chain.
Figures follow BC Insight. Licensed weekly grids are not restated. The 2.4 million tonne Tengiz 2023 print is the production base under Kazakhstan's export spike.