Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr A. Ismayilova / The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and Kazakhstan's national Kazmunaygaz JSC has plans to jointly construct two new terminals in the Caspian Sea, the President of SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev, said on 21 August.
Oil terminals will be necessary for pumping and discharging oil within the framework of exporting Kazakhstan's oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.
"We jointly, with Kazmunaygaz, will construct a new terminal in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan's tankers will be involved in oil transportation. If volumes of oil increase we will construct new tankers," Abdullayev said.
Earlier SOCAR and Kazmunaygaz signed an agreement envisaging establishment of joint ventures by the companies for constructing oil transport facilities intended to export Kazakhstan's oil via the BTC.
According to Abdullayev, the terminals will be constructed on a parity basis. Under the agreement, the sides plan to jointly implement the Trans-Caspian project to include oil discharging terminals off the Kazakhstan shore of the Caspian Sea, tankers, oil pumping terminals off the Azerbaijani shore of the Caspian Sea, and the facilities going to BTC.
The Trans-Caspian system is a part of the projected Kazakhstan Caspian oil transport system. It is planned that the system will provide for transporting 500,000 barrels per 24 hours at the initial stage (23mln t a year) followed by an increase up to 750,000 -1,200,000 barrels per 24 hours (35-56mln t a year).