BTC pipeline to transport part of Kashagan oil: Minister
By Aynur Jafarova
Once the oil production at Kazakhstan's giant Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea increases some portion of this oil will be transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.
The remarks were made by Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev in his recent interview with The Business Year magazine.
Aliyev noted that Kazakhstan plans to produce annually 23 million tons of oil at the Kashagan field in the first stage of development of the field, and to increase this volume to 50 million tons in the second stage.
"In that case, some portion of this crude oil will be exported through Azerbaijan to markets in the West," the minister stressed.
Kazakhstan is also interested in transporting oil through Azerbaijan. The country will transport four million tons of oil through Azerbaijan in 2014.
The 1,768-km BTC pipeline became operational in June 2006. BTC's throughput capacity is currently 1.2 million barrels per day. In 2013, BTC exported about 247.2 million barrels of crude oil loaded on 329 tankers at Ceyhan.
The oil transported via BTC to world markets mainly comes from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) and Shah Deniz fields. Also, crude oil from Turkmenistan continues to be transported via BTC. Since October 2013, transportation of some volumes of Tengiz crude oil through the BTC pipeline was resumed.
The energy minister went on to say that the investments of the second stage of development of Azerbaijan's giant Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Caspian Sea, as well as expansion and creation of gas transport infrastructure in Azerbaijan and Turkey is estimated at $46.5 billion.
In particular, the cost of the second stage of development of the field totals approximately $27 billion, the minister said.
The Shah Deniz field, one of the world's largest gas-condensate fields, was discovered in 1999. Its reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. Overall, the field has proven to be a secure and reliable supplier of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and Europe.
The gas which will be produced at the second stage of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field development will be the main source of the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages the transportation of the Caspian gas to European markets.