Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.9
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
The issue of distribution to the routes of oil produced by SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) independently from onshore and offshore deposits of the country, currently remains open, a source in the State Oil Company told Trend Jan.7.
Earlier, SOCAR decided on the volume of oil (produced independently), provided for export in 2015. In 2015, SOCAR plans to export 1.7 million metric tons of oil extracted independently this year compared to 1.55 million metric tons envisaged for 2014.
In 2015, the volumes were distributed between the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline (1.02 million metric tons) and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline (530,000 metric tons).
The volume of exports for 2015 have already been defined, and now SOCAR exports oil produced on its own, only using the northern route - Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline, according to the source. The transportation of crude oil via the BTC pipeline is not conducted.
The source did not rule out the possibility of exporting oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
The source said that in January 2015, the shipment of one batch of oil with capacity of 85,000 metric tons is provided from the port of Novorossiysk.
As the Russian side decided to terminate the intergovernmental agreement on the oil supply via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, oil pumping via it was suspended in February 2014. As a result, oil was redirected to the BTC. However, SOCAR and Russian Transneft signed a new agreement on oil transportation via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline for one year.
Despite the signing of a new commercial agreement, SOCAR continued pumping some oil through the BTC.
SOCAR exported 932,160 metric tons in 2014 via the northern Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline compared to 1.75 million metric tons in 2013.
The construction of the pipeline started in April 2003 and it was filled with oil on May 18, 2005.
BTC Co. shareholders are: BP (30.1 percent), AzBTC (25 percent), Chevron (8.9 percent), Statoil (8.71 percent), ТРАО (6.53 percent), Eni (5 percent), Total (5 percent), Itochu (3.4 percent), Inpex (2.5 percent), ConocoPhillips (2.5 percent) and ONGC (2.36 percent).
The pipeline's capacity is 1.2 million barrels of oil per day.
SOCAR has been the operator of the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline since 2008. It received operatorship from the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (led by BP).
The length of the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,147 kilometers: length of the Azerbaijani section - 231 km, the Russian section - 916 km.
According to SOCAR, the filling of the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline began in October 1996. Its maximum capacity is 105,000 barrels per day.
Edited by CN
Follow the author on Twitter: @Emilsmail