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BTC pipeline is strategic asset for Total

Business Materials 8 January 2015 14:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 8

By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline is a strategic asset for French Total, because BTC will allow the company to provide export of gas condensate and oil from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, said the head of Total E&P Azerbaijan Denis Lemarchal in an interview with The Business Year magazine.

He said that taking into account the plans for the development of Absheron gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, the BTC pipeline, in which the French company has 5 percent of the equity, is a good option for the export of gas condensate.

The discovery of the large Absheron natural gas field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian was announced in September 2011, following the drilling of an exploration well.

The field's potential reserves amount to 350 billion cubic meters of gas and 45 million metric tons of condensate.

The participants of the Absheron project include SOCAR with a share of 40 percent and French company Total with 40 percent and Gaz De France Suez with 20 percent.

In May 2014, the Turkish company TPAO and Total Azerbaijan signed a contract for the sale of a 10-percent share of Total in the Shah Deniz. Under the contract, after the deal, TPAO's share in the project will increase to 19 percent.

Lemarchal said that this asset (BTC) is important not only within the company's operations in Azerbaijan, but also in terms of the export of oil from production facilities of Total in Kazakhstan.

"The fact that the BTC Pipeline is not yet full is an opportunity in oil development in the area," said the head of the company.

Oil pumping capacity of the BTC pipeline is 1.2 million barrels per day.

Total is one of the members of the North-Caspian project (Kashagan) in Kazakhstan, with geological reserves exceeding 5 billion metric tons of oil (about 1.7 billion metric tons of which are recoverable).

Currently, the shareholders staff of the consortium is as follows: KMG Kashagan BV - 16.88 percent, Agip Caspian Sea B.V. - about 16.81 percent, ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc. - about 16.81 percent, Shell Kazakhstan Development BV - about 16.81 percent, Total EP Kazakhstan - about 16.81 percent, Inpex North Caspian Sea Ltd. - 7.56 percent, CNPC Kazakhstan BV - 8.33 percent.

The Kashagan field is one of the largest ones, found during the last 40 years. The project is also one of the most difficult technical tasks international oil companies ever dealt with.

Edited by CN

Follow the author on Twitter: @Emilsmail

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