Azerbaijan, Baku, May 25 / Trend , E.Ismayilova/
The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) is planning to pump oil via the Baku- Novorossiysk pipeline through inconsiderable decrease of raw material at Baku Oil Refining plants, SOCAR's high ranking official said. This year, Azerbaijan is planning to increase its oil shipment via the Baku- Novorossiysk pipeline to 2.5 million tons of oil from 1.3 million ton of 2008.
"It is planned to increase oil pumping via the pipeline through inconsiderable reduction of production, as well as through increasing of oil pumping by companies, which produce oil on onshore fields," the official said.
The official has not made public Azerbaijan's oil production for this year.
Oil products are manufactured at two oil refining plants in Baku with a total capacity of 20 million tons of oil per year. Both plants are owned by SOCAR, which manufactures roughly 6 million tons of oil per day from offshore and onshore fields.
The increase of oil pumping to north was due to diversification of oil supplies from Azerbaijan, the official said earlier.
The operator of the Baku-Novorossiysk to the end of 2007 was the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, which referred it to SOCAR. This AIOC partners are not going to have to transport oil via this route in the future. However, because of the events in Georgia in August last year and stop the pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in the same period, AMOC partners (project participants to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) had to resume the exports on this route.
Azerbaijan receives at the exit (at the port of Novorossiysk) Urals brand oil because of mixing with other oil producers while transporting via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline. However, Russia may consider the issue creating the bank of quality in Novorossiysk with increasing of pumping of Azerbaijani oil via this route.
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