Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6
Trend - E. Ismayilov
SOCAR Company (The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) will halt the shipment of oil from the Russian port Novorossiysk in the first half of February, the State Oil Company told Trend on February 4th.
Currently, oil from Azerbaijan is exported via three oil pipelines - Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku - Supsa and Baku - Novorossiysk, and also via the railway. Thus, if the failure of oil transportation via Baku-Novorossiysk occurs, oil can be directed to the two other pipelines.
The oil extracted by SOCAR and from onshore fields worked out within the framework of joint enterprises is transported via the Baku - Novorossiysk Oil Pipeline. In 2013, SOCAR exported 1.75 million tons of oil via the Baku - Novorossiysk northern pipeline versus 2.06 million tons in 2012.
"The priming of oil via Baku - Novorossiysk will be halted, and the last shipment of oil from Novorossiysk will be conducted in the first half of this month," SOCAR said.
Earlier, the Russian side made a decision to halt the intergovernmental agreement about oil shipment via the Baku - Novorossiysk Pipeline. Moreover, they announced the presence of possibilities for the continuation of negotiations with the Russian side on work of this pipeline, in particular, in the reverse direction.
According to the source at SOCAR, after the termination of the priming via the Baku - Novorossiysk Oil Pipeline, SOCAR will direct the volume of oil, transported on this route, to the Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan Oil Pipeline, via which the majority of the Azerbaijani oil is exported.
It is supposed that about two million tons of oil will be annually pumped via Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan. Besides, the company intends to transport five million tons of additional volume of oil via Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan.
The construction of the Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan Pipeline started in April 2003, and it was filled with oil on May 18th 2005. The shareholders of Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan are BP (30.1 percent), AzBTC (25 percent), Chevron (8.9 percent), Statoil (8.71 percent), TPAO (6.53 percent), Eni (5 percent), Total (five percent), Itochu (3.40 percent), Inpex (2.5 percent), ConocoPhillips (2.50 percent) and ONGC (2.36 percent).
Translated by R.A.
Edited by C.N.