Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 14 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
Large Kazakh oil company Tengizchevroil (TCO) is in negotiations with the BTC pipeline company, which manages a pipeline that runs from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Ceyhan, Turkey, on the Mediterranian Sea, to ship some of its oil through it, TCO General Director Tim G. Miller told journalists on Tuesday, Dow Jones International News reported.
"We have not come to an agreement yet, we hope to do so in 2012, but we're not going to make an agreement at a bad price, we want it on our terms and at our prices," Miller said.
Moreover, according to Miller, Tengizchevroil expects to ramp up production by 12 million metric tons a year (or about 260,000 barrels a day) to 37.8 million tons by 2017 under a $20 billion program whose next phase is awaiting approval by the company's partners.
The investment program includes building a new crude-processing plant, a separate pressurizing unit that will make the new and existing plants work more efficiently, and drilling some 20 new wells, he said.
The Tengizchevroil partnership was formed in 1993 between the Republic of Kazakhstan and Chevroil company. Current partners are Chevrol (50 percent), Kazakh National Company KazMunaiGas (20 percent), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc.(25 percent) and LukArco B.V. (5 percent).
Tengizchevroil develops Tengiz and Royal fields in the Atyrau region in western Kazakhstan. Total recoverable crude oil reserves at Tengiz and Korolev field through April 2033 is from 750 million to 1.1 billion metric tons (6-9 billion barrels).
TCO completed the expansion in the third quarter of 2008 which brought daily capacity to 75,000 metric tons (600,000 barrels) of crude oil per day and 22 million cubic meters (750 million standard cubic feet) of gas per day.
TCO exports crude oil via Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline to Novorossiysk, via rail to Odessa and Feodosiya, as well as to Aktau, then futher to Batumi and Kulevi.