Azerbaijan, Baku, June 4 / Trend /
In July, Georgia will start works on construction of a new Black Sea port in Supsa, director of the Black Sea Product Ltd (BSP), owner of the port, Shalva Tsakadze said in Baku.
"All the preliminary works have been completed, and in particular, repurchase of land and design works, and next month we will begin the construction works," Tsakadze said.
He said in full the construction of the port with capacity of 40 million tons of cargo per year is scheduled for 2014, and the port plans to receive first vessels by the end of 2012.
"In 2014 construction works will be completed in full, and by the end of 2012 the port will receive its first vessels," Tsakadze said.
The new port will be designed for transshipment of oil-loading and liquefied gas freights. Also, the port will transship container and dry cargo. Less than half of the capacity of the port will be designed for transshipment of liquid freights, and the rest for container and dry cargo.
According Tsakadze, the port will be located in the centre of the transport corridor TRACECA (Europe-Caucasus-Asia). According to Tsakadze, the main advantage of the port in Supsa, is water depth (18 meters), which will allow it to take any vessel which will go through the Bosporus.
At present, the Azerbaijani oil from the block of the offshore oil and gas fields "Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli" in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea is transported via the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline to Supsa. Here oil is loaded into the tankers and is sold in the world markets.