Kazakhstan suspended BTC oil flow ‘over high fees’, will seek other routes
The suspension of transporting Kazakhstan’s oil through the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main export pipeline via Azerbaijan’s
territory from 2010 by Tengizchevroil developing the Tengiz and
Korolevskoye oil fields was due to Baku’s raising transportation
fees, KAZINFORM news agency quoted the company’s general director
as saying.
Todd Levy said Tengizchevroil would do its utmost to deliver Tengiz
crude to world markets through alternate routes. Russian-backed
South Stream pipeline and railways are considered as options to
reach that goal.
BP Azerbaijan, the BTC operator, earlier told the Baku-based ANS TV
channel that the suspension has not affected the pipeline’s
throughput capacity so far.
The Central Asian state began pumping its oil through the pipeline,
which transports Azerbaijan’s crude to world markets through
Georgia and Turkey, in October 2008. A total of 1.9 million tons of
Kazakh crude were transported via BTC in 2009.
The BTC pipeline was opened in July 2006. The 1768km conduit
transports oil produced from Azerbaijan’s Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli
(ACG) oil block in the Caspian Sea.*
Here we are to serve you with news right now. It does not cost much, but worth your attention.
Choose to support open, independent, quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis.
By subscribing to our online newspaper, you can have full digital access to all news, analysis, and much more.
You can also follow AzerNEWS on Twitter @AzerNewsAz or Facebook @AzerNewsNewspaper
Thank you!