Azerbaijan, Baku, June 13 / Trend , E. Ismayilov/
The capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline will be increased from current 1.2 million barrels to 1.6 million barrels per day in 2010, Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said.
"Capacity of the pipeline was recently increased up to 1.2 million barrels. Next year it will be increased up to 1.6 million barrels per day," Aliyev said.
Aliyev said over 80 million tons of oil has been transported via Ceyhan since 2006.
Cost of increasing BTC capacity from 1 million barrels per day to 1.2 million barrels per day is estimated at $69 million.
Azerbaijan has transported light oil to world markets mainly via BTC since April 2007.
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.
Around $4bln has been spent for the construction of BTC not including fill-up of pipeline, financial expenses and payment of the bank rates. The credit allocated for the project totaled $2.6bln.
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%.
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