Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 26
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR pumped about 170,000 tons of oil via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline in Jan.-Feb. 2016, a source in the country's oil and gas market told Trend Feb. 26.
SOCAR redirected its oil to BTC at the time due to lack of an agreement on the use of Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline with the Russian Transneft, said the source.
The company has no specific plans on the volume of oil that will be exported via BTC in 2016, according to the source.
"SOCAR is committed to diversify its oil export routes. In accordance with the existing practice, oil pumping in both directions will be rotated," noted the source adding that if due to any reason the company is not able to export oil via one pipeline, the second pipeline will be used.
In 2015, SOCAR transported 1.2 million tons of oil via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline versus 932,160 tons transported in 2014.
In 2015, SOCAR distributed the export volume between Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline (1.2 million tons) and the BTC (460,000 tons).
SOCAR and Russian Transneft signed a new agreement on oil transportation via Baku-Novorossiysk. The Azerbaijani company plans to pump around 1.3 million tons of oil via the pipeline.
The length of Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,147 kilometers: the length of its Azerbaijani section is 231 kilometers and Russian section - 916 kilometers.
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