SOCAR, Transneft to pump oil via Baku-Novorossiysk in 2021

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan State Oil Company (SOCAR) and Russian Transneft have signed a deal to pump over 1 million tons of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2021, the Russian media has reported with the reference to Transneft Press Secretary Igor Demin.

Some 85,000 tons of Azerbaijani oil is planned to be pumped via this route in February.

It should be noted that no crude oil was transported via this pipeline from Azerbaijan in January, as all SOCAR volumes were transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that passes through Turkey.

The Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline was used by SOCAR as an auxiliary route for oil exports.

Azerbaijan has been transporting its oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline since 1997. Maximum capacity of the pipeline is 105,000 barrels per day. The pipeline has three pump stations - Sangachal, Sumgayit and Siyazan. The diameter of the pipeline is 530 mm, and the length of the pipeline is 1,330 km, out of which 231 km is Azerbaijani part.

In 2020 SOCAR reduced exports via this route by 30 percent to 613,000 tons of oil.