Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend S.Aliyev / Approximately $100 mln is planned to be spent in 2007 to expand Aktau Port in the northern direction. The cost of the project is estimated at $255 mln, said Chief of Department of Commercial and Cargo Affairs of Aktau Port, Bolat Jansugurov, on 24 April at the first Caspian Commercial and Transport Conference in Baku. The project will be completed in 2010 and will provide an opportunity to increase the volume of oil cargo transportation up to 20 mln tons and dry cargos up to 3 mln tons per year.
In addition, a transport-logistics center is planned to be created in the port which will allow the increase of cargo transportation by nearly 30%. In 2006 10 mln tons of oil cargo and 1.5 mln tons of dry cargo were transported via the port. The main customers of the port are Mangistaumunaygaz JSC, Karajanbasmunay JSC, Aktobemunaygaz CNPC, Tengizshevroil, Agip.
Aktau Port plans to participate in the transportation of Kazakh oil via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Presently negotiations are held between GazMunayGaz and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan to define the profitability of the Aktau-Baku project, the possibility to transport Kazakh oil through tankers, the tariffs on transportation as well as other commercial issues. Nearly 25 mln tons of oil are planned to be transported via the pipeline per year during the first stage. The figure may be increased up to 38 mln tons per year in the future, Jansugurov said.
The conference was organized by the British Consulting Company, Confidence Energy Limited and the State Oil Academy of Azerbaijan.