BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 22. Kazakhstan is interested in increasing the volumes of oil transported through Azerbaijan, Dauren Karabayev, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of KazMunayGas JSC, said, Trend reports, citing Kazakh media.
"Now we have negotiations between KazMunayGas and Azerbaijani SOCAR on the agreement for five years to transport 1.5 million tons of oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. It remains to be decided which of the Kazakh oil companies will transport these volumes. We expect that the volumes will increase in the future," Karabayev said.
Earlier, Alikhan Smailov, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, said that Kazakhstan will begin transportation of 1.5 million tons of oil through Azerbaijan in early 2023.
"We now have an agreement to transport 1.5 million tons of oil through Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan from January 1 next year. At the same time, we envisage a further growth to 6-6.5 million tons. Pilot shipments by rail towards Batumi and Uzbekistan have already begun, while the number of tank cars was doubled," said Smailov.