Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
The refusal of Azerbaijan, as a state, from the Georgian port of Batumi for oil shipment is out of question, Deputy Head of Public Relations Department at Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR Ibrahim Ahmadov told Trend.
He was commenting on the recent report saying that Azerbaijan prefers to transship its oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline or through its own terminal in the Georgian port of Kulevi, but not through Batumi.
“Our (SOCAR) oil is transported to the Black Sea basin via Baku-Supsa. This is while oil products are transshipped by tanks in Kulevi, where the third-party oil is also transited. SOCAR has not directly transshipped oil and oil products through Batumi port since 2008. As for the overall Azerbaijani oil shipment (not only SOCAR oil) through Batumi, as far as I know, some foreign companies and consortia, operating in Azerbaijan transshipped oil through Batumi until recently. Since every company chooses its own route for transportation and marketing its share of oil, the refusal of Azerbaijan, as a state, from the Georgian port of Batumi is out of question. Separate companies prefer one or another route for commercial and other reasons,” he said.
Earlier, Reuters reported citing an official at a KazMunaiGas-operated terminal at the port of Batumi that oil and oil-related shipments from Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi dropped 24 percent in the first four months of 2019 from a year earlier.
Shipments of crude oil and refined oil products from Batumi have fallen in recent years, partly because Azerbaijan prefers to send its oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline or via its own terminal at the Georgian port of Kulevi, rather than from Batumi, which is operated by a Kazakh company, said Reuters.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn