1 million bpd expected from ACG

From April 2007, BTC shareholders have been sending all of oil volumes from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) via the BTC pipeline, BP-Azerbaijan President Bill Schrader told a 2007 first quarter results media briefing.

He added that during the first quarter oil from ACG has continued to flow via one 24" and two 30" subsea pipelines to the Sangachal Terminal.

"The terminal's total oil processing capacity 800,000 barrels per day and plans are to raise it to over one million barrels of oil per day when ACG Phase 3 facilities are commissioned at the terminal later this year. In April Sangachal achieved its highest daily export rate to date when over 900,000 barrels were processed and exported. From 1997 to the end of the first quarter of 2007, about 186 million barrels (282 tanker loads or some 25 million tonnes) of oil (including SOCAR non-ACG oil) was transported via the Northern Route Export Pipeline (Baku Novorossiysk). Currently an average of around 100,000 barrels of oil per day is being transported via the railway systems of Azerbaijan and Georgia. from the beginning of railway transportation by the end of the first quarter of 2007, about 73 million barrels of oil (9.8 million tonnes or 122 tankers) had been transported by rail to Batumi in Georgia. The Western Route Export Pipeline to Supsa is currently shut down as a precautionary measure to allow the completion of an extended repair programme which includes re-routing of a one milometer section in Georgia. The pipeline will be restarted as soon as we complete all the necessary repairs and satisfy ourselves of the integrity of the pipeline," he added. APA-Economics