Ilham Nasirov, the Executive Director of AZBTC, stated in talks with journalists that in March 2007 BTC Co plans to increase the discharge capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export oil pipeline from the current 550,000 barrels of oil a day to 1 million barrels a day, Trend reports.
At present the pumping capacity of the pipeline is 550,000 barrels a day due to use of diesel fuel instead of gas expected from the Shah Deniz at the pump stations.
A daily capacity of 1.2 million barrels is required to pump Azerbaijani gas via the BTC pipeline
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Participants in the Kashagan project are considering the BTC pipeline as a major priority route and would to export more and more volume of oil. From 500,000 to 750,000 barrels of oil a day should run via Azerbaijan, he assured.
Nasirov stressed that considerable expansion o the BTC will depend on the term of delivery of the Kazakh oil. Earlier we supposed oil [from Kashagan] will be produced in 2007-2008, while now it is expected by 2012.