Azerbaijan, Baku, May 29 / Trend , E. Ismayilov/
Azerbaijan and Russia will hold consultations regarding expediency of designing and signing new inter-governmental agreement on transport of Azerbaijani oil via Russia, Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko said after meeting of the joint inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation in Baku.
The inter-governmental agreement on transportation of Azerbaijani oil via Baku - Novorossiysk was signed on January 18, 1996. Tariff for transportation of one ton of oil is $15.67.
"The most important issue is transit tariffs," Shmatko said and added that these tariffs do not suit Russian. "A few days ago we offered Azerbaijan a new contract on tariffs which are being considered at the moment," the minister said.
"We think the major problem is that the tariffs were rigidly fixed about 15 years ago. In this regard we think that there is a need for changes [in tariffs]," the Russian minister said.
The issue of introducing oil quality bank in Novorossiysk will also be reviewed.
As of this year, coordinated volume of oil transport via Baku - Novorossiysk is 2.5 million tons. The agreement signed in 1997 provided for transport of five million tons of oil via this route.
The length of Baku-Novorossiysk is more than 800 kilometers. The capacity is about five million tons per year.
The operator of the pipeline was Azerbaijan International Operating Company till end of 2007 which handed it over to SOCAR later. AIOC partners were not going to transport oil via this route in the future. However, because of the events in Georgia in August of last year and suspension of Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan oil pipeline in the same period, AIOC partners (participants of Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan project) had to resume the exports via this route.
Azerbaijan gets Urals oil mixed with oil of other producers from the Novorossiysk port. Russia can consider issue of creating quality bank in Novorossiysk once Azerbaijan ups gas transport via this pipeline.
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at: [email protected]