Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 4
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
The SOCAR company (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) will direct all oil volumes provided for 2015 for export via the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline, a source in the State Oil Company told Trend Feb. 4.
The source said that SOCAR and the Russian Transneft already signed an agreement, according to which the State Oil Company will transport 1.7 million metric tons of oil produced by SOCAR independently on land and offshore fields of the country via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.
"This agreement covers the year 2015," said the source.
SOCAR exported 932,160 metric tons in 2014 via the northern Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline compared to 1.75 million metric tons in 2013.
In 2014, the volumes were distributed between the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline (1.02 million metric tons) and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline (530,000 metric tons).
As the Russian side decided to terminate the intergovernmental agreement on the oil supply via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, oil pumping via it was suspended in February 2014.
As a result, oil was redirected to the BTC. However, SOCAR and Russian Transneft signed a new agreement on oil transportation via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline for one year.
Despite the signing of a new commercial agreement, SOCAR continued pumping some oil through the BTC.
The construction of the pipeline started in April 2003 and it was filled with oil on May 18, 2005.
BTC Co. shareholders are: BP (30.1 percent), AzBTC (25 percent), as well as Chevron (8.9 percent), Statoil (8.71 percent), ТРАО (6.53 percent), Eni (5 percent), Total (5 percent), Itochu (3.4 percent), Inpex (2.5 percent), ConocoPhillips (2.5 percent) and ONGC (2.36 percent).
The pipeline's capacity is 1.2 million barrels of oil per day.
SOCAR has been the operator of the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline since 2008. It received operatorship from the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (led by BP).
The length of the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,147 kilometers: length of the Azerbaijani section - 231 km, the Russian section - 916 km.
According to SOCAR, the filling of the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline began in October 1996. Its maximum capacity is 105,000 barrels per day.
Edited by CN
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