Azerbaijan boosts natural gas transportation via main pipelines

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan increased natural gas transportation through main gas pipelines by 10.8 percent during the period of January-April 2021, Azertag has reported.

Some 12.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas were transported via main gas pipelines during the first four months of the year.

The South Caucasus Pipeline (or the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline) accounted for 48.1 percent of natural gas transportation. Some 5.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas were transported via this pipeline in January-March.

Moreover, 11.9 million tons of oil was transported through Azerbaijan’s main oil pipelines during the reported period.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline accounted for 76.1 percent or 9.6 million tons of the transported oil. In addition, 1.2 million tons of transit oil was transported via BTC this year.

It should be noted that BTC, which takes Azerbaijani oil to Europe, exported more than 27.8 million tons of crude oil loaded on 278 tankers at the Ceyhan terminal in 2020. The daily average throughput of the South Caucasus Pipeline was 33.8 million cubic meters of gas per day during 2020. 

The South Caucasus Pipeline was built to export the Shah Deniz gas from Azerbaijan to Georgia and Turkey. The pipeline starts from the Sangachal terminal near Baku. It follows the route of the BTC crude oil pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey, where it is linked to the Turkish gas distribution system. The pipeline has been operational since late 2006 transporting gas to Azerbaijan and Georgia and starting from July 2007 to Turkey from Shah Deniz Stage 1.

The BTC pipeline is a transport line for Azerbaijani oil from the Caspian Sea to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey, and then to European markets via the Mediterranean Sea. On July 13, 2006, the official opening ceremony of the BTC oil pipeline took place in Turkey. The total length of the pipeline is 1,768 km, of which 443 km pass through the territory of Azerbaijan; 249 km to Georgia; 1076 km to Turkey. The projected capacity is 50 million tonnes of oil per year or one million barrels per day. Light oil produced at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field is transported via BTC.