BTC pipeline resumes exports of oil from Kazakh field

BTC Co., operator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, has resumed the transportation of oil from Kazakhstan's Tengiz deposit through the pipeline, the company told Interfax.

Tengizchevroil stopped pumping oil through the pipeline in 2010 due to high costs.

"The pumping of Tengiz oil via the BTC pipeline resumed in October of 2013," a company representative said.State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) told Interfax that the pipeline transports from 50,000 to 60,000 barrels of Kazakh oil on a daily basis.Citing the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry, it has been reported that there will be four million tonnes of Kazakh oil transported through Azerbaijan via the BTC pipeline in 2014.Tengizchevroil develops the Tengiz and Korolyov oil and gas fields in the Atyrau region of west Kazakhstan. It is owned by American ChevronTexaco Overseas (50%), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc. (25%), Kazakhstan through the national company KazMunayGas (20%) and Russian-American JV LUKArco (5%). The company has been operating since 1993.

The BTC pipeline runs 1,768 kilometers (443 kilometers in Azerbaijan, 249 kilometers in Georgia and 1,076 kilometers in Turkey). The pipeline's throughput capacity tops 50 million tons of oil a year. Project members are BP (with a 30.1% stake), SOCAR (25%), Chevron (8.9%), Statoil (8.71%), TPAO (6.53%), Eni (5%), Itochu (3.4%), ConocoPhillips (2.5%), INPEX (2.5%), Total (5%), and ONGC Videsh Limited (2.36%).

ANN.Az