Azerbaijan, Baku, 23 April / Trend A. Badalova/ Within a month Kazakhstan will sign an agreement with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) on essential principles of creation of the Kazakhstan Caspian Transportation System (KCTS), Arman Darbayev, Chief Executive for Transportation in KazMunayGaz JSC, said to journalists in Baku on 23 April.
"The agreement is almost ready and will be signed in near future, probably in a month," he said. Creation of the system is planned to be completed by the end of 2012.
At the second Caspian oil and gas trade and transport conference in Baku, Darbayev said that the further arrangements to be held in near future are signing of intergovernmental agreements and an agreement on establishment of a joint venture.
The agreement on transportation of oil from Kazakhstan's Kashagan, Tangiz and other fields via Azerbaijan was signed on 16 June 2006.
According to Darbayev, development of the feasibility study for Eskene-Kuryk pipeline will be completed at the end of the year. The outline cost of the pipeline with the capacity of 20mln tons per year will make up about $1.3-1.4bln. "Further expansion of the pipeline will augment its cost and pumping volume," he said.
"As to construction of terminals in Kazakhstan, that will require about $500-600mln. The number of tankers to be used in transportation will be contingent on the power of the transportation system," Darbayev said.
Each tanker is supposed to cost $70-80mln and to transport up to 5mln tons. Deadweight of the tankers is expected to comprise some 60,000 tons.
The correspondent can be contacted at: [email protected]