Azerbaijan exports 384 mln metric tons of oil
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan has exported 384 million metric tons of oil since September 1, 2014.
The transportation was conducted as part of the Contract of the Century signed on September 20, 1994, which involves the development of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea,
These remarks were made by Head of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev in an interview with the official website of the ruling New Azerbaijan party on September 19.
The ACG block of fields has been active since 1997. Production started from the Chirag part of the field. It was followed successfully by Azeri Project; Central Azeri production in February 2005, West Azeri in December 2005, and East Azeri in October 2006.
The Deepwater Gunashli section launched production in April 2008.
ACG participating interests are BP (operator - 35.8 percent), SOCAR (11.6 percent), Chevron (11.3 percent), INPEX (11 percent), Statoil (8.6 percent), ExxonMobil (8 percent), TPAO (6.8 percent), ITOCHU (4.3 percent), ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) (2.7 percent).
He noted some 254.9 million metric tons of transported oil fell on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, 69.1 million metric tons to Baku-Supsa pipeline, 39.1 million metric tons to the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, while 20.5 million metric tons of oil were exported by rail.
Abdullayev added some 11.6 million metric tons of Turkmen and over 4.3 million metric tons of Kazakh oil was exported via the main export pipeline in Azerbaijan - BTC as of Sept. 1.
The capacity of BTC pipeline is 50 million metric tons a year and this figure can be increased up to 60 million metric tons in the future, Abdullayev said.
The 1,768-kilometer BTC pipeline which became operational in June 2006 carries mainly ACG oil and Shah Deniz condensate from Azerbaijan. In addition, crude oil from Turkmenistan continues to be transported via BTC.
The BTC Co. shareholders are BP (30.1 percent); AzBTC (25 percent); Chevron (8.9 percent); Statoil (8.71 percent); TPAO (6.53 percent); ENI (5 percent); Total (5 percent), ITOCHU (3.4 percent); INPEX (2.5 percent), ConocoPhillips (2.5 percent) and ONGC (BTC) Limited (2.36 percent).