Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to discuss Kazakh oil transportation via BTC

A regular meeting between the Azerbaijani and Kazakhstani working groups for the transportation of the Kazakhstani oil by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is going to take place in the nearest future, Natiq Aliyev, president of the SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan), has told journalists, KZ-today correspondent reports from Baku.

He has observed that a draft intergovernmental agreement on the transportation of the Kazakhstani oil by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is ready and a parallel work on preparation of a transit agreement of the Kazakhstani oil by the BTC has started. "Recently I have had a telephone conversation with the Kazakhstani side and possibly we will hold another meeting in the nearest future," - he has said.

In general, N. Aliyev has stated that the negotiating process is proceeding successfully.

The talks between the SOCAR and "KazMunaiGaz" on an intergovernmental agreement between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan on the transportation of the Kazakhstani oil by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline started in November, 2002. The intergovernmental agreement between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan creates a new Aktau-Baku system for the transportation of Kazakhstani oil by the BTC pipeline. The capacity of the transferring system will be 20 million tons of oil per annum, up to 7.5 million tons will be transported during the first phase.

The length of BTC pipeline is 1,767 km, of which - 443 km are in Azerbaijan, in Georgia - 248 km, in Turkey - 1,076 km. The pipeline capacity is 50 million tons of oil per annum. The participants of BTC project are the following: BP (30.1 %); SOCAR (25.00 %); Unocal (8.90 %); Statoil (8.71 %); TPAO (6.53 %); ENI (5.00 %); Itochu (3.40 %); ConocoPhillips (2.50 %); INPEX (2.50 %), Total (5.00 %), and Amerada Hess (2.36 %). ENI, ConocoPhillips, Inpex, and Total also participate in Kashagan field development.