TODAY.AZ / Business

Azerbaijan offers to pump Kazakh and Turkmen oil by Baku-Novorossiysk route

05 June 2008 [16:54] - TODAY.AZ
Azerbaijan offers to Russia to come to an agreement on transportation of Kazakh and Turkmen oil by the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.
Today vice president of the State oil Company of Azerbaijan Elshad Nasirov told reporters that "we have found common grounds with Transneft to discuss oil transportation by the third country by this route".

"Under the intergovernmental agreement of 1996 only Azerbaijani oil with our certificate can be transported via the Russian territory. We have found this variant to make Russia happy as transit via its territory will grow, to make Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan happy as they have a direction for oil transportation and for us to be happy with growing trade turnover with Russia and these countries. Until Transneft is thinking, the advantage is on their side", said Nasirov.

Answering the question, whether this will influence the transportation volumes of Azerbaijani oil by the Northern route, he said URALS oil is cheaper that the Azerbaijani light oil, produced from the Neft Dashlari field, therefore if we replace our volumes of oil with oil from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, we will not lose money from transportation of our own oil and will pump our oil by Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Supsa or the railroad to the Kulevi terminal. "This is the case when economic commercial profit of all sides allows removing political obstacles", added Nasirov.

SOCAR currently pumps only 1,000,000 tons of oil. If there is a demand and lack of obstacles the capacity of the pipeline may grow.

"It is true that we have capacities for our calculations. We have Baku-Supsa and Kulevi terminal. The conclusion of an agreement between Transneft and SOCAR about possible pumping of oil by the third countries does not mean that this pipeline becomes a priority of our transit.

Naturally, we wanted to pump oil by the railroad to compensate for investments into the Kulevi terminal, by Baku-Supsa and BTC. After these routes and filled, we will direct oil by Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline", said Nasirov.

He noted that no offers have been submitted from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan as there have not been any chances for pumping.

/Day.Az/
URL: http://www.today.az/news/business/45481.html

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