Azerbaijan boosts natural gas transportation via main pipelines

22 February 2021 16:13 (UTC+04:00)

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By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan increased the transport of natural gas through its main gas pipelines by 12.2 percent year-on-year in January, bringing the volume to 3.5 billion cubic meters, Azertag has reported.

South Caucasus Pipeline (or Baku-Tbilisi Erzurum pipeline) accounted for 45.3 percent of natural gas transportation. Some 1.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas were transported via this pipeline in the first month of the year.

Azerbaijan's main oil pipelines transported 3.1 million tons of oil in January.

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline accounted for 79.4 percent or 2.5 million tons of transported oil.

It should be noted that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that takes Azerbaijani oil to Europe, exported more than 27.8 million tons of crude oil loaded on 278 tankers at Ceyhan terminal in 2020. The daily average throughput of South Caucasus Pipeline was 33.8 million cubic metres of gas per day during 2020.

The South Caucasus Pipeline was built to export Shah Deniz gas from Azerbaijan to Georgia and Turkey. The pipeline starts from the Sangachal terminal near Baku. It follows the route of the BTC crude oil pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey, where it is linked to the Turkish gas distribution system. The pipeline has been operational since late 2006 transporting gas to Azerbaijan and Georgia, and starting from July 2007 to Turkey from Shah Deniz Stage 1.

The BTC pipeline is a transport line for Azerbaijani oil from the Caspian Sea to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey, and then to European markets via the Mediterranean Sea. On July 13, 2006, the official opening ceremony of the BTC oil pipeline took place in Turkey. The total length of the pipeline is 1,768 km, of which 443 km pass through the territory of Azerbaijan; 249 km to Georgia; 1076 km to Turkey. The projected capacity is 50 million tonnes of oil per year or one million barrels per day. Light oil produced at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field is transported via BTC.

Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad