Oil exports to Italy soar

By Azernews

By Leman Mammadova

Azerbaijan, who supplies energy resources to the world markets, constantly expands the geography of export destinations.

The country exported 5.7 million tons of oil to Italy in the first half of 2019. The total price of oil delivered to Italy amounted to $2.5 billion.

The volume of exports increased by 53.7 percent in quantitative terms, and by 45.7 percent in value in January-June 2019 compared to the same period last year.

In the reporting period, the share of supplies to Italy accounted for 35.7 percent of the total oil exports.

The major buyers of Azerbaijani oil also included China – 1.3 million tons ($667 million), India – 1.2 million ($624.5 million), Germany – 1.2 million ($554.7 million), Israel – 1.1 million tons ($544.5 million), and Spain – 895,133 tons ($425.5 million).

Azerbaijan exported 15.8 million tons of oil worth $7.7 billion in January-June 2019.

Azerbaijani oil produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field is exported to the world markets through the Sangachal Terminal, mainly through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline and the Baku-Supsa Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP).

BTC, which is considered to be the main artery of energy export in the region, has played an important role in the extraction of the Caspian Sea's rich energy resources and bringing them to the world markets.

At present, the BTC pipeline mainly transports the ACG oil and Shah Deniz condensate from Azerbaijan. In addition, other crude oil and condensate volumes, including Turkmen, Russian and Kazakh oil are transported via the pipeline.

The length of the pipeline is 1,768 km, 443 km runs through Azerbaijan, 249 km - through Georgia and 1,076 km - through Turkey. Daily transport capacity of the pipeline is 1.2 million barrels.

In 2018, approximately 34 million tons (255 million barrels) of crude oil was exported through BTC.

One of the main buyers of Azerbaijani oil is Italy. So far, Italian companies have invested $596 million in Azerbaijan's oil and gas sector.

Italian company Eni has been involved in several projects on the operation of oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan since 1995, which laid the foundation for economic cooperation between countries. Since 1999, Italy has begun to receive a large part of Azerbaijani oil exported through the Baku-Supsa pipeline and then through Baku-Jeyhan.

Azerbaijan will also supply gas to Italy through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is the main part of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC).

TAP gas pipeline, which is currently under construction, will be operational in early 2020. The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of doubling it. TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).