BTC ups oil transportation
Azerbaijan, Baku, April 14 / Trend /
In January-March, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) transported 9.2 million tons compared to 8.8 million tons in the same period of 2010, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee reported. In 2010 the volume of oil transportation via BTC amounted to 38.3 million tons.
Some 616,300 tons of Turkmen oil were transported via BTC in January-February 2011. Transportation of the Turkmen oil via BTC has started from July 2010.
The oil is transported under contracts signed between the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, Dragon Oil and other oil-producing companies in Turkmenistan.
SOCAR Trading buys and transports oil from producers in Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea to the BTC entrance flange at the Sangachal Terminal in Baku. The BTC Co. then transports the oil via the BTC to SOCAR Trading at the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Turkey.
The total length of BТС is 1.768 km, including the 443km section running via Azerbaijan, the 249km section via Georgia and the 1.076km via Turkey. Thecapacity of the pipeline is more than 50mln tons of oil per day (1mln barrel per day).
The shareholders of BTC are BP (30.1 percent), AzBTC (25 percent), Chevron (8.90 percent), Statoil (8.71 percent), TRAO (6.53 percent), Eni (5 percent), Total (5 percent), Itochu (3.40 percent), Inpex (2.50 percent), ConocoPhilips (2.50 percent) and Hess (2.36 percent).
In January-March, the South Caucasus gas pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum) transported 1.3 billion cubic meters of gas which is equal to the figure of the same period of 2010. The gas pipeline transported 4.9 billion cubic meters of gas in 2010.
The range of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (South Caucasian gas pipeline) is more than 700km. The pumping capacity is more than 20bln cu m of gas per year. The gas produced from the Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Capian Sea is transported via the pipeline. The gas is supplied Georgia and Turkey. Azerbaijan also appears as the buyer of gas.
