Azerbaijan, Baku, June 14 /Trend, S.Suleymanov/
The Kazakh-Azerbaijani joint venture on Trans-Caspian oil transport systems project will be established by the end of this year, said the head of the representation of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) in Kazakhstan Vurgun Jafarov.
"Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan joint venture on the project will be established by the end of the year," said Jafarov.
Currently, work is underway on the feasibility study, which calculate what volumes of oil will be transported and what is necessary for the project.
"There is no need to hurry with the creation of the joint venture unless the feasibility study is ready," said Jafarov.
"Unless there are real volumes of oil and guarantees for them, the project will not be implemented," he said.
The period of construction of Kazakhstan Caspian Transportation System (kcts) will be postponed from 2012 to a later date, said the chairman of the KazMunaiGaz JSC Board Kayrgeldi Kabildin said earlier.
He remembered that the CCST project was basically created to deliver oil from the Kashagan field.
"About 370,000 to 540,000 barrels of oil will be produced per day within the first stage of the Kashagan field development. According to experts, these volumes can be transported via CPC system (Caspian Pipeline Consortium), after its expansion, via the Chinese pipeline, as well as Aktau-Baku-Batumi pipeline," said the head of Kazakh national company.
He said the second phase of Kashagan's development has not been approved.
"It will be approved in 2010. It is reasonable to assume that there is a delay in the next stage, they (the shareholders of the North-Caspian project consortium) have an obligation only for early oil, that is, give it late October 2013," said Kabildin.
"And then, there will not be huge volume of oil by 2012 and we suppose that for the period of 2014 to 2016 there will not be real volumes of oil to justify the construction of the CCST. Accordingly, the timing of the start of the transport project will be postponed.
The national oil companies of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan - KMG and SOCAR - signed an agreement on basic principles of the implementation of the Kazakhstan Caspian Transportation System (KCTS) in 2008 in Baku. The sides agreed that the project, which was only an idea formerly, will become a reality in 2013-2014.
CCTS should provide an opportunity to transport oil in volume of 23 million tons with further increase to 35-56 million tons per year. The main feature of the project is that the oil will go by sea through the Caucasus, rather than through Russia.