BP's Azeri pipeline reaches million bpd capacity

The 1,768 km (1,099 mile) pipeline, launched in May 2006, pumps crude from the giant Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) group of fields in the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

"The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is now capable of transporting the projected one million bpd of oil after we put all the pumping stations into operation," BP-Azerbaijan said in a statement.

The pipeline currently ships some 700,000 bpd of oil from the ACG fields, which have reserves estimated at 900 million tonnes (6.59 billion barrels) of oil.

Only two of the ACG fields, Azeri and Chirag, are already producing. Guneshli will be put on stream later this decade.

To ensure transportation of the field's increasing output BP is planning to expand the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline's capacity to 1.6 million bpd.

TengizChevroil, a group led by U.S. Chevron , is also going to use the pipeline to ship Kazakh crude to Turkey. But an Azeri official in the group said earlier this week the first shipments would be delayed by at least six months to early 2008.

He said the group, which also includes U.S. Exxon Mobil , Kazakh state oil firm KazMunaiGas , a venture of BP and Russia's LUKOIL , needed more time to clear "many issues" by the venture participants. He gave no details. Reuters