Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 26 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
Implementation of the Trans-Caspian Oil Transport System (TCOTS) for transportation of Kazakh oil will depend on the project to develop the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, a source in the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) said.
The TCOTS is expected to be established for oil transporting from Kazakhstan through to the Mediterranean Sea via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and to the Black Sea - along the Azerbaijan-Georgia transport routes. The second passage involves both the transportation of oil by rail, and a review of possible construction of a new oil pipeline Baku - the Black Sea.
Previously it was planned that the project work will be completed in 2013-2014, the source said. "But everything will depend on the implementation of the Kashagan project and from the shippers," the source said.
The tender to determine the company to prepare feasibility study for TCOTS project was established in June. The tender is still not closed, the source said.
KazMunayGas (KMG) head Kairgeldi Kabildin said earlier that only the field's second phase of development can provide sufficient volumes for CCST. The second phase is set to launch in 2018-2019.
According to him, launch of realization of the Caspian Oil Transport Systems (CCST) also automatically postponed.
Kabildin said that the construction of the CCST was postponed to a later date, as those quantities of oil that would be produced at the Kashagan in the first phase, will be transported via existing pipelines: CPC, Kazakhstan-China and by rail.
The system's initial capacity will be 23 million tons per year. It envisages the construction of tankers and terminals in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, as well as the connecting pipes. But, according to the source, existing terminals may be involved in the first stage.
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