Azerbaijan, Baku, June 3 / Trend , E.Ismayilov/
Azerbaijan will not change tariff on pumping the Azerbaijani oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, how it was earlier offered by Russia, Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Minister Natiq Aliyev said at the "Oil&Gas 2009" conference on June 3.
"A transit agreement between our countries was signed in 1996 and we are satisfied with the transit cost. Therefore, we do not want to change conditions of the transit," Aliyev said.
The minister said Azerbaijan is satisfied with the transit conditions due to including all expenses as part of the oil transportation and fixing tariffs.
"The legislative change [of Russia] does not concern us, as well as charges in the port, as all of them have been included in tariff," Aliyev said.
If one side is not satisfied with the conditions, then under the transit agreement, that side must submit a note for 6 months in advance.
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.
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.
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