KMG head: Pumping Tengiz oil via BTC may resume in near future

Kazakhstan, Astana, May 4 / Trend A. Maratov /
Azerbaijan has promised to provide competitive tariffs to transport oil from Kazakhstan's Tengiz Field via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline, KazMunaiGas Chairman Kairgeldy Kabyldin said in an interview with Trend.
"The Azerbaijani side has promised us to provide competitive tariffs in the near future. After that the Tengiz oil may again be transported via the pipeline," Kabyldin said.
He recalled that the main reason for stopping Tengiz oil transportation was transit tariffs.
"It turned out that a tariff on the BTC for the Tengiz oil is higher than on the route Baku - Batumi, which includes the transportation on the railway, including overhead expenses," the national company's head said.
He said Azerbaijan has recently reviewed the transit tariff amount.
"But we have not received official response yet," he said.
Earlier, the pipeline transported oil from Tengiz, but pumping stopped in 2010 due to uncoordinated transportation terms.