Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.29
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan will maintain the volume of oil transportation via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2016 at the level of 2015, the company's president Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters Oct.29.
"We plan to transport around 1.5-1.6 million tons of oil via Baku-Novorossiysk," he said.
Abdullayev noted that SOCAR intends to continue using the northern export route.
"From the economic point of view, the third route is very important," SOCAR head said. "It is important both for us and for the Russian side, since it gets certain revenues."
SOCAR ships its oil through the Novorossiysk port where it is delivered via the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline.
The company transported 932,160 tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2014, compared to 1.75 million tons in 2013.
SOCAR has been operating Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline since 2008. The company took over the operation of the pipeline from Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC - headed by BP).
The length of Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,147 kilometers: the length of its Azerbaijani section is 231 kilometers and Russian section - 916 kilometers.
The pipeline was filled with oil in October 1996, according to SOCAR. Its maximum capacity stands at 105,000 barrels per day.
SOCAR and Russian Transneft signed an agreement, according to which SOCAR was supposed to transport 1.7 million tons of oil produced by it independently onshore and offshore via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2015.
However, SOCAR didn't export oil via the northern pipeline in June and redirected around 300,000 tons to Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov