BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 12
By Anastasia Savchenko - Trend:
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline’s implementation project was the brainchild of Heydar Aliyev’s oil policy, First Vice President of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, Academician Khoshbakht Yusifzade said in an interview with national Xalq newspaper, Trend reports.
“The total length of this pipeline, passing through the territories of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, directly to the Mediterranean Sea, is 1,769 kilometers, with throughput capacity of 50 million tons per year,” the first vice president reminded. “The BTC pipeline was commissioned on May 28, 2005, and officially opened on July 13, 2006.”
Yusifzade added that at the opening ceremony, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev emphasized the strategic importance of the BTC pipeline, which plays an important role in international cooperation in the oil and gas sector.
“As of Dec. 1, 2019, 555 million tons of Azerbaijani oil were exported to world markets, 396 million tons of which were delivered through the BTC pipeline,” the first vice president said.
“Over the past 16 years, under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, a lot of work has been done to implement the oil and gas strategy of the great leader Heydar Aliyev, which has turned Azerbaijan into a state that plays an important role in Europe’s energy security, changing the energy map of the world,” Yusifzade added.
