SOCAR, Transneft put pen to sign new accord on Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline

State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and the Russian Transneft signed a new agreement on oil transportation via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, according to a message posted on the SOCAR website.

"After lengthy talks on resumption of oil transportation via Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline, SOCAR and Transneft signed a new agreement based on mutually beneficial terms and conditions. Resumption of oil transportation through the territory of Russia will create opportunities for expanding export routes of Azerbaijani oil to the world markets," SOCAR said.

Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline independently transported oil produced by SOCAR, as well as from onshore fields, developed within joint ventures.

In 2013, SOCAR exported 1.75 million tons of oil via the northern Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline compared to 2.06 million tons in 2012.

However, earlier the Russian side decided to terminate the intergovernmental agreement on the supply of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.

Nevertheless, it was stated that there was opportunity for further negotiations with the Russian side on the work of this pipeline, in particular in the opposite direction.

SOCAR told Trend on Feb. 17 that it started transportation of its oil, which was previously exported via the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline, through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

It was supposed that in case of no agreement, annually about two million tons of oil will be pumped via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. This oil was transported by SOCAR annually via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.

Additionally, the company has the prospective opportunities for transporting up to five million tons of additional volumes of oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan.

The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline started in April 2003, and it was filled with oil on May 18, 2005.

The shareholders of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan are BP (30.1 percent), AzBTC (25 percent), Chevron (8.9 percent), Statoil (8.71 percent), TPAO (6.53 percent), Eni (five percent), Total (five percent), Itochu (3.40 percent), Inpex (2.5 percent), ConocoPhillips (2.5 percent) and ONGC (2.36 percent).


/Trend/