Cargo transportation grew 13.1% in January-October

Of the cargo transported in this period, 50.9% by automobile, 17.9% by pipeline, 21.2% by railway, 10 % by sea and the part of the private sector in cargo transportation was 54.8%.

As APA reports, the turnover of goods transport during the ten months peaked thanks to the BTC oil pipeline. Cargo turnover rose by 53.9%, year-over-year, to 32.7bn tonnes/kilometer.

The number of passengers carried rose 5.9%, year-over-year, to 875.4m.

84.5% of the passengers were carried by automobile and 14.8% by Subway. Freight carrying by railway rose 17.2%, year-over-year, in January-October to 25m tonnes.

11.7m tonnes of cargo were carried by sea and this figure is a 5.1 rise. Oil cargo made up 70.6%, of which 29.4% was transported abroad. Shipment turnover rose 15.9% to 7bn tonnes/km and passenger carrying by sea rose 9.2%.

Oil transportation through pipeline peaked thanks to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Some 4.8m metric tons of crude oil were delivered to Ceyhan Port and the turnover made 6.4bn tonnes/km.

In total 14.9m tonnes of oil were transported through all pipelines which is a 53.4% increase on the same period last year. 8.5bn cu m of gas were transported during this period of which 43% was importation of the gas supplies from other countries.

The giant project of the millennium- Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Oil Pipeline is 1 760 kilometers in length. The pipeline runs from Azerbaijan to Ceyhan, a Turkish port via Georgia and Turkey.

The whole pipeline is under ground. It crosses the Caucasus ranges at altitudes of up to 2,800m. It is capable of transporting 1 million barrels (160 000 m?) of oil per day meeting the export demand in full development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli Fields.

Its structure includes 8 pumping stations (two in Azerbaijan, two in Georgia and four in Turkey), Turkish Ceyhan Terminal, 2 intermediate pigging stations and 2 pressure-regulating stations and 101 block valve stations.

Grand Official Opening Ceremony of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline was held at Ceyhan Terminal on June 13, 2006.