Kazakhstan, Astana, 31 January / corr Trend K.Konirova / The Kazakh Caspian Oil Transportation System represents a prospective direction, Uzakbay Karablin, the President of the Kazakh National Company KazMunayGas, said in Astana.
The system enables the transport of oil from the Kazakh fields of Kashagan and Tengiz to the international markets through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export oil pipeline, Karablin said on 31 January at the meeting of State Holding 'Samruk'.
"Last year KazMunayGas and SOCAR signed a memorandum on co-operation regarding the Kazakhstan Caspian Oil Transportation System, which will be put into operation in 2012," Karabalin said. "In the near future, we are going to present the conception of realizing the project for the review of the inter-departmental commission for its further approval and realization," he said.
Currently BTC transports Light oil produced from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields. The operation of the pipeline is BP. Only two foreign participants of the project on the development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields - American ExxonMobil and Devon - do not transport their oil via BTC. These companies were not investors for the construction of BTC and export their oil via the Georgian Port of Batumi, through the railway.
The construction of the BTC pipeline totalled $4bln.
Shareholders of BTC Co includes: BP (30.1%); AzBTC (25%); Chevron (8.90%); Statoil Hydro (8.71%); ТРАО (6.53%); Eni (5%); Total (5%); Itochu (3.40%); Inpex (2.50%); ConocoPhillips (2.50%) and Amerada Hess (2.36%).