Azerbaijan, Baku, March 5, Trend , E. Ismailov
Around 450,000-500,000 tons of oil is transported from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan a month, Aydin Bashirov, Chief of the Caspian Shipping Company (CSC) of Azerbaijan, reported on Friday.
"Chevron transports around 250,000 tons of oil a month. There is also another supply of around 200,000-250,000 tons. The figure totals around 450,000-500,000 tons a month. The same can be said about petroleum products", Bashirov said.
According to him, the supply of oil goods from Kazakhstan is expected to increase in future.
Bashirov has stated that the contract with Chevron, which is the operator of field Tengiz in Kazakhstan, earlier assumed transportation of 2 million tons of oil a year, but now the figure is higher. Under the terms of the contract, ships owned by the SOCAR and by Kazakhstan transport the oil on parity bases.
In 2009, the Caspian Shipping Company transported a total of 9.86 million tons of oil goods, of total volume of goods of 13.2 million tons. This year, the transportation of total goods is likely to reach 13.5 million tons, including 70-75 percent as oil goods.
Currently, oil, which is transported from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan, is further transported to the Georgia's Black Sea Coast by railway. In 2008, Tengizchevroil, a US-Kazakh venture with Chevron as the operator, started transporting oil from field Tengiz on oil pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan. However, no oil from Kazakhstan has been transported on BTC since the beginning of this year as Tengizchevroil and BTC shareholders have disputes over tariffs.
The sides hold negotiations to conclude a contract, SOCAR Chief Rovnag Abdullayev reported earlier. Currently, they also settle matter related to dual taxation of oil from Kazakhstan. According to him, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan concluded the Agreement "On Avoidance of Dual Taxation", and the dispute will be settled in line with the Agreement.
In 2009, pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan transported 1.9 million tons of oil from field Tengiz as compared to 285,100 tons transported in October-December 2008.
BTC Co shareholders are BP (30.1 percent), AzBTC (25 percent), Chevron (8.90 percent), Statoil (8.71 percent), TPAO (6.53 percent), ENI (5 percent), Total (5 percent), Itochu (3.40 percent), ConocoPhillips (2.50 percent), and Hess (2.36 percent).