Azerbaijan, Baku, September 20 /Trend E.Ismayilov/
To date 8.6 million tons of Turkmen oil was exported through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, head of SOCAR (the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) Rovnag Abdullayev told in his article published in Azerbaijan newspaper on Friday.
Transportation of Turkmen oil via BTC, which began in July 2010, is being carried out within the framework of the SOCAR Trading contract with Dragon oil which extracts oil in Turkmenistan.
SOCAR Trading buys oil from producers in Turkmenistan and delivers it through the Caspian Sea to Baku where there is an entrance flange of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline at the Sangachal terminal. BTC Co transports oil through the BTC pipeline and leases it to SOCAR Trading in the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
According to the article, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which is unique, is one of the main elements in providing world energy security.
"The pipeline is very important in transportation of oil of third countries of the Caspian region," Abdullayev stressed.
The head of SOCAR also said that along with the transportation of Turkmen oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, currently companies from Kazakhstan and Russia show interest in this pipeline.
BTC Co shareholders are: BP (30.1 per cent), AzBTC (25 per cent), Chevron (8.9 per cent), Statoil (8.71 per cent), TPAO (6.53 per cent), Eni (five per cent), Total (five per cent), Itochu (3.40 per cent), Inpex (2.5 per cent), ConocoPhillips (2.50 per cent) and ONGC (2.36 per cent).
The pipeline's capacity is 1.2 million barrels of oil per day.