Azernews.Az

BATUMI - The Chevron-led Tengizchevroil venture may cut crude deliveries via Georgia diverting them to Turkish hub of Ceyhan due to a row between the owners of the Georgian terminals, industry sources told Reuters on Thursday.

The sources said the shipments of Tengiz crude blend via two Georgian outlets will be downsized to a three-month low of 100,000 tonnes in September from 165,000 tonnes in August and 198,199 tonnes in July.

Traders said Tengizchevroil could divert the supplies to Baku-Ceyhan link as early as in September or October.

The decision to send the barrels to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan came as the owners of two terminals in Georgia, Kulevi and Batumi, are quarrelling over priorities of the supplies.

Tengizchevroil stopped using the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan earlier this year because of disagreements on tariffs.

Crude and refined oil products from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are shipped to Georgia's Black Sea ports of Batumi, Supsa, Poti and a terminal in Kulevi, which is owned by the Azeri state energy company SOCAR.

Some are shipped across the Caspian Sea in small tankers, unloaded in the Azeri port of Baku and then sent by rail to Georgian ports for re-export to the Mediterranean.

Kazakh state energy firm KazMunaiGas operates a terminal in Batumi and wants most of the Tengiz shipments to go through the terminal, while SOCAR is lobbying for its Kulevi outlet.

'We are in talks with the Azeri side, hope to solve the issue in the nearest future and to restore the volumes to Baku-Batumi direction,' a source in Kazakh Ministry of oil and gas told Reuters.

Apart from Chevron, Tengizchevroil shareholders are Exxon Mobil , Russia's LUKOIL and Kazakh state energy firm KazMunaiGas.