Azerbaijan, Baku, June 4 / Trend , E. Ismayilov/ Talks are underway to enlarge Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Supsa oil pipelines to pump Kazakh oil via it, senior SOCAR official said. Both pipelines are operated by BP.
"Talks, technical and judicial studies are being held to enlarge these pipelines," a SOCAR source said.
This is of technical, judicial and fiscal nature and will also decide who will own proportion of the BTC once zero balance begins, he said.
"All options including technical, commercial and judicial are examined."
The total length of BТС is 1.768 kilometers including the 443 kilometer section running via Azerbaijan, the 249 kilometer section via Georgia and the 1.076 kilometer via Turkey. Construction of the pipeline began in April 2003 and it was filled with oil on May 18, 2005.
The pipeline has a capacity of 1 million barrels per day. The capacity reached 1.2 million barrels due to use of chemical reagents.
BTC shareholders include BP (30.1%); AzBTC (25%); Chevron (8.90%); Statoil Hydro (8.71%); ТРАО (6.53%); Eni (5%); Total (5%); Itochu (3.40%); Inpex (2.50%); ConocoPhillips (2.50%) and Amerada Hess (2.36%).