Azerbaijan, Baku, July 22 / Trend E. Ismayilov /
The dredging of the sea bed in Azerbaijani Black Sea terminal Kulevi (Georgia) by SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) will be completed in the first ten days of August. These operations are being implemented to serve large-capacity tankers in the terminal, a source close to operations in the terminal said on July 22.
"The dredging is under completion. The operations are expected to be completed in the first ten days of August," the source said. According to plans, roughly 2.2 million tons of soil will be moved in the dredging process.
Launching the transport of Kazakh oil from the Tengiz field via the terminal relies on this process. The joint Kazakh-U.S venture Tengizchevroil deals with developing the Tengiz field.
The source said that talks and meetings are to be held to launch the transport of Tengiz oil via the Kulevi terminal. "It is hard to speak in terms of a concrete time when supplies will be launched, but operations are being held now," he said.
Head of KazMunaiGaz Company Kairgeldy Kabyldin said that roughly 5 million tons of Kazakh oil are planned to be transported via Azerbaijan in 2009, more than 3 million will be Tengiz oil.
U.S ChevronTexaco Company launched the transport of Tengiz oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. Tengiz oil will be transported via the BTC and by railroad to Georgian ports (Kulevi and Batumi) according to the terms of the agreement.
According to the state statistics committee, roughly 907,700 tons of Tengiz oil was transported via the BTC oil pipeline in the first six months of 2009.
Azerbaijani State Oil Company owns the Georgian Black Sea terminal Kulevi but the Batumi terminal is owned by KazMunaiGaz.
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