Kazakhstan, Astana / corr Trend V.Sharifov / To export large oil volumes to the world markets, Kazakhstan is prepared to build a new pipeline via the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia (from Baku to the Black Sea), Arman Darbayev, Executive Director of KazMunayGas Oil Company of Kazakhstan, said in the 2nd Eurasian Energy Forum in Astana on 7 September.
The terms or cost of the possible pipeline construction was not mentioned. The first stage envisages plans to transport 500,000 barrels of oil (23mln tons a year) through the Kazakh transport system via Azerbaijan and in the second stage up to 1.2mln barrels a day (56mln tons a year).
Various foreign shareholder companies on the Kashagan field development are also investors in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) export pipeline. However, the capacity of oil pumping to the BTC for Kazakhstan might be insufficient and should it be necessary we can build a new pipeline from Baku to the Black Sea.
Regarding the oil deliveries by tankers to Baku, Darbayev said that to achieve efficient transportation and maintenance of the cost of hydrocarbons, Kazakhstan assures that the deadweight of tankers should comprise 60,000 tons. "Not only Kazakhstan, but also our neighbors support this issue [deadweight of tankers]," Darbayev said.