The Azerbaijani Caspian Shipping Company (CASPAR) regards construction of tankers with 60,000 tons deadweight as uneconomic, the Company told Trend . These tankers are proposed for shipment of Kazakh oil for its further transportation via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
The Company stressed that use of tankers required construction of additional infrastructure. Such vessels can not enter any port in the Caspian Sea. Therefore, charge and discharge of tankers can be carried out through offshore piers or off-shore charge and
discharge by smaller vessels. These process is very difficult and requires big investments. Besides, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan must carry out considerable bottom dredging, CASPAR said.
There is also problem of short route. Charge and discharge of 60,000 tonnages tankers take several days. Over this period 13,000 tonnages Azerbaijani and Kazakh tankers manage to carry out several voyages.
The Company regards the proposal on construction of similar tankers as application of dumping and unhealthy competitiveness. At present the Company has 72 vessels with 37 tanker fleet and 35 dry-cargo fleet with 430,312 tons deadweight. Besides, CASPAR has three tankers of type 13,000 tonnages President Heydar Aliyev. Two more similar tankers, constructed at Russian Krasnoye Sormovo plant, will arrive in Baku from October to November.