Transit revenues grow

11 June 2019 16:12 (UTC+04:00)

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By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

Transit of oil and gas in 2018 brought 18.1 million manats ($10.69 million) revenues to Azerbaijan, reads the report of the Azerbaijan Chamber of Accounts.

The report says that the amount of the revenues is by 188,200 manats ($110,380) more than the amount of 2017 and by 4.2 percent more than the projected revenues.

It was also noted that the Azerbaijani part of the Baku-Supsa pipeline transported 27.9 million barrels of oil in 2018.

Touching upon the transit of oil, Azerbaijani company SOCAR transports crude oil from Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea in tankers for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.

BTC is a 1,768 kilometer-long crude oil pipeline from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It connects Baku and Ceyhan, a port on the south-eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey, via Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.

Being a strategic project, it is the first direct link between the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas. The first oil that was pumped from the Baku end of the pipeline reached Ceyhan on May 28, 2006.

Touching upon transportation of oil and gas and potential of Azerbaijan in this sphere, it is necessary to note the Southern Gas Corridor project. This pipeline, 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.

The Southern Gas Corridor project, which envisages the creation of a pipeline infrastructure for the transportation of Azerbaijani gas, is one of the most ambitious projects in the world of oil and gas industry, as well as a complex target that involves many different stakeholders, including seven governments and 11 companies.

SGC unites a number of pipeline projects set to bring Azerbaijani gas from Shah Deniz 2 field to Europe and to provide energy security of the latter by expanding the number of gas routes to Europe.

The Southern Gas Corridor consists of four segments: Shah Deniz 2, expansion of South Caucasus Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum), the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).

Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1