Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 25 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
By April, the Azerbaijani Azeri Light crude oil will reach the Belarusian oil refineries via the Odessa-Brody pipeline in the direct mode, General Director of the Sarmatia International Pipeline Company (IPC) Sergei Skripka told Trend.
He said the Odessa-Brody pipeline was officially launched into the direct mode on Jan. 31 and actually the transportation of Azerbaijani oil to the Mozyr refinery by pipeline began on Feb.14 and before that oil was stored in tanks.
The Odessa-Brody oil transportation project sought to diversify oil supplies to Ukrainian refineries and develop the country's transit potential. The pipeline's construction was completed in May 2002. Its trunk has a length of 674 kilometers, with a pipe diameter of 1,020 millimeters. The capacity of the pipeline and the terminal provided 9-14 million tons per year during the first stage.
Over the two years since the pipeline's construction, Ukraine unsuccessfully negotiated the transportation of Caspian oil in forward direction. As the country was unable to receive any concrete proposals from companies, the Ukrainian government authorized the use of pipeline for transporting Russian oil in reverse direction in late June 2004.
Skrupka said three 80,000-tankers have been received to date, and the oil is pumped into the pipeline. But despite this, while Azerbaijani oil is not delivered to refineries in Belarus, because time is needed to push Urals crude oil pumped into the pipeline when it was working in reverse mode.
While transforming the pipeline to the designed mode it contained 620,000 tons of Urals crude. In fact, the pipeline has already pumped 240,000 tons of Azerbaijani oil and more tankers are needed in order that the pipeline had only Azerbaijani oil.
"Today oil is delivered to the Belarusian refineries via this pipeline. Just yet, it is Urals crude oil, which was previously pumped into the pipeline. Currently, Azerbaijani oil pushes out it and following the completion of this process, Azerbaijani oil will reach the Belarusian oil refineries," Skripka said.
He said the launch of the pipeline in the direct mode positively evaluated by Sarmatia and Belarusian and Ukrainian consumers. The beginning of the pipeline in the designed direction will positively affect the energy security of Ukraine and neighboring countries. In particular, Russia plans in late 2011 to launch the Baltic Pipeline System-II, which will transport oil without transit through the territory of Ukraine and Poland.
A contract for the supply of oil from Azerbaijan was signed between the Belarusian Oil Company and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR). Under the contract, about four million tons of oil will be supplied in 2011. Oil will be delivered to the port "South", and then by the "Odessa-Brody" and "Drujba" pipelines to the Mozyr oil refinery. A contract for pumping hydrocarbon raw material using the Odesa -Brody pipeline was signed between CJSC Belarusian Oil Company and JSC Ukrtransnafta. Azerbaijani oil will be supplied to Belarus simultaneously with the supply of raw material from Venezuela.
Oil supplies to Belarus through Ukraine, opens to Azerbaijan the Caribbean and the US markets, as the Belarusian, Venezuelan and Azerbaijani sides have agreed to swap supplies.
Venezuela has an obligation to Minsk for the supply of oil for the Belarusian oil refineries. However, this project requires a significant investment in the transportation of crude oil. The presence of "swap" contract allows SOCAR to deliver oil from Azerbaijan to Belaru, and in turn send Venezuelan oil to South America. Specifically, SOCAR is interested in acquiring Venezuelan Santa Barbara oil to sell on the U.S. market. SOCAR would supply oil to Belarus and receive the same amount from Venezuela.
Sarmatia was created on July 12, 2004, by Ukrtransnafta and Polish company PERN Przyjazn for attracting investment for the design and completion of the Odessa-Brody pipeline to Plotsk.
Sarmatia was created under an oil transportation project via the Odessa-Brody-Gdansk-Plotsk route. Sarmatia's participants include SOCAR, the Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation Ltd. (GOGC), Ukrainian Ukrtransnafta, Polish Przedsiebiorstwo Eksploatacji Rurociagow Naftowych Przyjazn SA and Lithuanian AB Klaipedos Nafta with equity participation of 24.75 percent of key players and one percent in the Lithuanian company.