SOCAR reduces oil exports via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline

By Azernews

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR exported 329,420 tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in January-July 2019.

This is stated in the report of Russia’s Federal State Budgetary Institution Central Dispatching Office of the Fuel and Energy Complex.

The message says that the volume of oil pumped from Azerbaijan to the port of Novorossiysk in July 2019 amounted to 79,710 tons.

In January-July 2018, the transit of Azerbaijani oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline made up 718,400 tons. Thus, the export of Azerbaijani oil through this pipeline decreased by 54.1 percent year-on-year.

Earlier, Transneft Vice-President Sergey Andronov stated that SOCAR’s request for pumping for the third quarter was received in the amount of 320,000 tons.

At the same time, the annual volume, previously announced by the company at 1.3 million tons, remained unchanged.

SOCAR resumed exports via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline from July 3 after the shutdown in March 2019 due to the scheduled maintenance work on the pipeline.

In 2018, SOCAR exported 1.2 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.

Azerbaijan has been transporting its oil through this pipeline since 1997.

The Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline (also known as the Northern Route Export Pipeline) is a 1,330-kilometer oil pipeline, which runs from the Sangachal Terminal near Baku to the Novorossiysk terminal at the Black Sea coast in Russia.

As Azerbaijan has no direct access to the open seas, it is in need of more pipelines. So, maintaining oil transportation via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline meets Baku's interests in terms of diversification of routes.