Azerbaijan, Baku, April 28 / Trend /
The Georgian Black Sea terminal Kulevi, which is owned by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR), will be able to receive tankers with 60,000 tons deadweight only after reconstruction, Republic (SOCAR) Marketing and Economic Operations Department Deputy Chief Nuru Guliyev said.
Initially it is necessary to carry out dredging. It is planed to create an unmooring loading of tankers. The first phase of works to be completed by mid-summer of this year, said Guliev.
Oil shipment through this terminal is necessary for draw of cargo going as transit through Azerbaijan to the east coast of the Caspian Sea, and in particular, oil from the Kazakh Tengiz field. The operator of the project is the U.S. Chevron has already shown interest in transporting oil through the terminal. Oil from Tengiz is transported through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline -about 40,000 barrels per day and through the Batumi oil terminal in Georgia (owned by KazMunayGas) - about 15,00-20,000 barrels per day.
SOCAR is planning to ship 8-10 million tons of oil and oil-related products via the Kulevi terminal in 2009.
SOCAR invested $340 million to the terminal.
The total shipping power at the terminal is 10 million tons of fuel per year, including three million tons of oil, three million tons of diesel and four million tons of petroleum residue. The terminal can also hold 168 tankers. The total volume of the tank farm is 320,000 cubic meters. The port can hold tankers weighing up to 100,000 tons. The capacity of the terminal is expected to hit 15-20 million tons within two years.
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