Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 23 / Trend , E.Ismayilov/ The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) does not intend to invest huge finance in relations of the Caspian system of oil transport, until consignors from the Kazakh field guarantee relevant amounts, senior official of the SOCAR said.
"It is necessary for investors, the Kazakh side (KazMunayGas) and the Azerbaijani side (SOCAR) to achieve guaranteeing of amounts while its realization. We will not invest serious finance in this project, until consignors will guarantee amounts," the source said.
It is expected that the sides will ink the next legal document guaranteeing amounts. The document will be a juridical binding contract. "As terms have not yet been determined, it is too early to speak about it," the source said.
The agreement on creation of the Caspian system of oil transport was signed between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in Baku on Nov 14. During the first stage the operation system will make it possible to transport 500,000 barrels of oil in per day, with further increase of power to 750-1,200 barrels per day. The system is planned to complete until the end of 2012.
The agreement on transportation of oil from Kazakhstan via Azerbaijan's territory has been signed on June 16, 2006. Kashagan and Tengiz fields, other offshore projects as well will be sources of supply.
In Oct. American ChevronTexaco began to transport oil from the Kazakh Tengiz field via BTC. In accordance with terms of agreement, the Tengiz oil will be transported via the BTC and railway to the Georgian Kulevi and Batumi Ports. Amount of the transported oil is expected to rise to 4mln tons a year.
ChevronTexaco is an operator of the Kazakh Tengiz field. Tengizchevroil operation company is occupied with development of contract area.
A total of 136,700 tons of the Kazakh oil was transported via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from Oct. to Nov, the State Statistic Committee of the country said.
The shareholders of BTC are BP (30.1%), AzBTC (25%), Chevron (8.90%), StatoilHydro (8.71%), TRAO (6.53%), Eni (5%), Total (5%), Itochu (3.40%), Inpex (2.50%), ConocoPhilips (2.50%) and Hess (2.36%).
Owner of Georgia's Kulevi Black Sea terminal is SOCAR and oil terminal in Batumi - KazMunayGaz.
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