Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend A.Ismaylova / The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and KazMunayGaz JSC jointly plan to construct two new oil terminals in the Caspian Sea, said the SOCAR President, Rovnak Abdullayev. The terminals will be necessary for loading and unloading oil for exportation of Kazakh oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
"We will, in cooperation with KazMunayGaz, construct a new terminal in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The tankers of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan will be involved in the transportation. If the volume increases, we will begin constructing new tankers," the SOCAR Head said.
Earlier SOCAR and KazMunayGaz signed an agreement on the establishment of a joint venture to implement work on the construction of oil transportation facilities to transport Kazakh oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
According to Abdulayev, the terminals will be constructed on an equal share. According to the agreement, the sides are going to jointly realize the Trans-Caspian project.
The Trans-Caspian system is part of the projected Kazakhstan Caspian Transportation System (KCTS). At the initial stage the KCTS is expected to transport 500,000 barrels of oil per day (23mln tons per year), with a further increase to 750,000 or 1.2mln barrels of oil per day (35-56mln tons per year).