The shareholders of the Kazakh project on development of Kashagan field, who are also investors of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) project, will transport 3.5m tons via the pipeline per year at the first stage, Trend reports.
Kashagan shareholders undertook liability to transport 7.5m tons oil via the BTC per year. Oil production from the Kashagan field is planned for late 2008.
9m tons of oil will be transported via the pipeline at the latest stages against planned 7.5m tons, but if the BTC is not be ready to accept such amount due to increasing oil production in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field, Kashagan shareholders will export the oil directly from the field.
The capacity of the BTC pipeline comprises 50m tons per year, but it may be increased up to 70-75m tons at expense of chemical reagents and construction of pumping station.
If any other company wants to transport oil via the BTC, while the pipeline works at full power, it will have to put fund in increase of the capacity of the pipeline.
The shareholders of Kashagan, who are also the investors of the BTC project, are as following: Eni, Inpex, TOTAL and ConocoPhillips.