Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 6
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
Currently, SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) has no plans to export oil, extracted independently from onshore and offshore fields of Azerbaijan, via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, a source on the oil and gas market of Azerbaijan told Trend Jan. 6.
"The summary on the volumes to be transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, is made in advance," the statement said. "No similar requests were received from SOCAR."
At present, the oil from the block of Azerbaijani oil and gas fields 'Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli', as well as the oil of producers from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are transported via the BTC oil pipeline.
"SOCAR has already started exporting via the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline," the statement said. "As for the BTC, there are no plans in this direction."
The forecasts on oil export volumes via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline were not disclosed because of a lack of information.
The oil extracted by SOCAR independently, as well as at onshore fields developed as part of joint ventures, is transported via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.
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 2014, 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). 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 will ship 170,000 metric tons of oil from the port of Novorossiysk in January 2015. The company mainly shipped batches at 85,000 metric tons monthly last year.
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.
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Edited by CN