Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 17 / Trend , E.Ismayilov/
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) is preparing its own Black Sea oil terminal Kulevi (Georgia) to receive the oil, said a senior official of SOCAR. Now the terminal receives only oil-related products.
"The terminal is still receiving oil-related products, but we will fully prepare the terminal to crude oil," said the representative of the company.
The process of dredging, which was conducted in order to allow entry of large-capacity tankers to the terminal, has been completed.
The beginning of the Kazakh oil transportation from the Tengiz field through this terminal depends on the terminal's opportunity to receive big-capacity vessels. The joint Kazakh-US enterprise TengizChevroil is engaged in developing the Tengiz field.
The representative of SOCAR said the company is ready to give Kazakhstan an opportunity of the Kulevi oil terminal.
Earlier a source at the terminal said that the talks are continuing to transport the Tengiz oil through the Kulevi oil terminal.
This year, it is planned to transport five million tons of the Kazakh oil through the Azerbaijani territory and over three million of this volume will fall to the Tengiz oil, the head of Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGaz Kairgeldy Kabyldin said in Baku earlier.
U.S. Company ChevronTexaco in 2008 began to transport the Tengiz oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC). Under the terms of the agreement, the Tengiz oil will be transported by the BTC and the railway to the Georgian ports (Kulevi and Batumi).
The owner of the Georgian Black Sea terminal at Kulevi is SOCAR, and Batumi - KazMunaiGaz.
At present SOCAR delivers oil to Chile, Ecuador, the U.S. west coast, and some European countries, such as Italy, France and Spain, but the bulk of the Azerbaijani oil is bought by Germany, said a senior official of SOCAR.
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