SOCAR to resume oil export via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline
By Leman Mammadova
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) plans to resume oil export via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline this week.
“Export of Azerbaijani oil via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline is currently not carried out,” Ibrahim Ahmadov, Deputy Head of Public Relations at SOCAR, told local media. “SOCAR will resume export via the ‘northern’ route this week.”
Earlier, Sergey Andronov, Transneft Vice President, said that SOCAR would resume oil transportation via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline starting from July 1.
Andronov said that SOCAR requested for 320,000 tons for transportation in the third quarter. The annual volume previously announced by the company at 1.3 million tons remained unchanged.
It is noteworthy that along with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Azerbaijani oil is also exported via Baku-Novorossiysk.
On February 18, 1996, an agreement was signed on transporting Azerbaijani oil to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk through the territory of Russia. Azerbaijan has been transporting its oil to the world markets through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline since 1997.
The total length of the oil pipeline is 1,330 km, 231 km account for its Azerbaijani section. The maximum transmission capacity of the pipeline is 105,000 barrels per day.
In March 2019, Azerbaijan stopped pumping oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in connection with the maintenance work in the Azerbaijani section of the pipeline. During the maintenance work, the volumes of oil that were provided for transportation in this direction were pumped through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
The oil transit from Azerbaijan to the port of Novorossiysk amounted to 249,710 tons in January-May 2019.
The Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline transports oil extracted by SOCAR independently, as well as from onshore fields developed within joint ventures. SOCAR has been the operator of the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline since 2008.
SOCAR exported 1.2 million tons of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2018 and it plans to export 1.5 million tons via the pipeline in 2019.
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Leman Mammadova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888
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