Azerbiajan, Baku, Dec. 2 / Trend /
Transporting Azeri oil via the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline in Israel is economically viable, Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan Michael Lavon-Lotem said in interview with Trend today.
"Experts say from an economic point of view the project is viable and a profitable way to supply oil to the Far East. The question is to convince exporters to use it. Right now we are working on this. Our calculations show that the project is profitable," the ambassador said.
Azeri Light, which is extracted by a consortium of companies developing the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field, is delivered to the Mediterranean Sea via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The pipeline has a transport capacity of over 1.2 million barrels per day. The pipeline also transports oil belonging to Chevron, which is produced at the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan.
The majority of the oil transported via the pipeline belongs to the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), which has a strong interest in expanding oil trade in Asian markets.
According to experts, transporting oil from Ceyhan to Ashkelon, and then through an existing pipeline to Eilat on the Red Sea, will increase the efficiency of Azeri oil deliveries to Asian markets.