BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 15. Japan’s INPEX company updated on test crude oil shipment from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan.
“The test shipment involves transporting the crude oil by rail from Atyrau to Aktau, and then by tanker to Baku in Azerbaijan. As of March 14, the rail shipment has been completed, and the tanker shipment from Aktau is expected to take place on March 15-16,” the company told Trend.
INPEX said it views the Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline infrastructure to be the primary method of shipment for Kashagan crude oil, both in terms of economics and security.
“However, we believe it is important to have access to an alternative export route in case the CPC pipeline encounters operational issues, and options include the Caspian Sea route being tested on this occasion, as well as the Atyrau-Samara pipeline system extending to the Baltic and Black seas,” the company said.
As for further test shipments, INPEX said it will determine this in due course based on evaluations of the results of this test shipment.
KazTransOil, national oil transporter in Kazakhstan, plans to make a test shipment of 7,000 tons of oil from Kashagan field for export in the Aktau Port for further delivery to Baku Port.
As KazTransOil noted, the shipper of Kashagan oil is INPEX North Caspian Sea, Ltd.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Roman Vasilenko said that the transportation of Kazakh oil through Azerbaijan will begin this year.
Earlier, Alikhan Smailov, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, said that Kazakhstan will begin transportation of 1.5 million tons of oil through Azerbaijan in early 2023.
"We now have an agreement to transport 1.5 million tons of oil through Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan from January 1, 2023. At the same time, we envisage a further growth to 6-6.5 million tons. Pilot shipments by rail towards Batumi and Uzbekistan have already begun, while the number of tank cars was doubled," Smailov said.
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