BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 14. The situation in the Red Sea does not create fundamental problems for the export of Azerbaijani oil, bp's Vice President for the Caspian region, Communications and External Affairs Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli told an Azerbaijani TV channel, Trend reports.
“Azerbaijani oil goes to the world market via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline (Mediterranean Sea), and it's lifted at Ceyhan port by buyers or traders who decide logistics issues themselves,” Aslanbayli noted.
According to him, the situation in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal due to attacks on ships is a big problem for the general cargo transportation market.
“The problems of the Red Sea are increasing the costs of transporting goods and delivery times. There is an impact on global trade, but this problem in general does not affect companies that produce oil in Azerbaijan,” the bp representative added.
In 2023, 227 million barrels (about 30 million tonnes) of BTC-exported crude oil were lifted at Ceyhan and loaded on 313 tankers, as compared to 224 million barrels (about 30 million tonnes) in 2022, showing a 1.3 percent increase.
The BTC pipeline currently carries mainly ACG crude oil and Shah Deniz condensate from Azerbaijan. In addition, other volumes of Caspian regional crude oil and condensate (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, SOCAR non-ACG volumes) continue to be transported via BTC.