In April Azerbaijan plans to ship 400,000 tons of Ural from the Novorossiysk port. Sources close to the port said that Azerbaijan International Operating company will ship 340,000 tons of oil by three tankers batches, while the SOCAR 60,000 tons of crude.
In April the AIOC will unload two tankers each with 130,000 tons oil from pier 1 of the Novorossiysk port and 80,000 tons from pier 2. The SOCAR will export 60,000 tons of oil from piers 6 or 7.
The AIOC will ship the first tanker with 130,000 tons of oil on 11-12 April, while the second volume will be delivered on 21-22 April and another batch of 80,000 tons on 26-27 April. SOCAR will unload 60,000 tons of crude on 29-30 April.
From January to February 2006 SOCAR shipped 85,000 tons of oil from the Russian port, while in March the Company sold 85,000 tons to trader Glencore Energy.
At present the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) transports the oil, produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field, through the pipelines Baku-Supsa and Baku-Novorossiysk, as well as railway till the Batumi port. AIOC supposes to keep oil export only via the Baku-Supsa pipeline after commission of BTC.