Kazakhstan oil pumping by BTC to start in late October

Reports say that Tengiz oil from Kazakhstan will be supplied by tankers to the Absheron peninsula and then will be further pumped to BTC and exported from the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The company representative did not specify the volumes of Kazakh oil pumping, saying it is a confidential information.

As reported earlier, a joint venture Tengizshevroil was created for exportation of Kazakh oil by BTC. The volume of Tengiz oil transportation by BTC will make up to 5 mln tons per year. on June 16 of 2006 Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed an intergovernmental agreement on transportation of Kazakh oil by BTC, envisioning creation of the Aktau-Baku system with their further connection to this pipeline. The agreement is aimed at pumping of 25 mln tons of Kazakh oil.

The BTC pipeline extends to 1,767 kilometers with 443 kilometers in Azerbaijan, 248 in Georgia and 1,076 kilometers in Turkey. The capacity of the pipeline is 50 mln tons of oil per year. The BTC shareholders are BTC Co companies including  BP (30.1%), SOCAR (25%), Chevron (Unocal) - 8.9%), Statoil (8,71%), TPAO (6.53%), Itochu (3.4%), Amerada Hess (2.36%), ENI (5%), ConocoPhilliрs (2.5%), Inрex (2.5%), Total (5%) At the same time, ENI, ConocoPhillips, Inpex and Total are taking part in the contract for Kashagan field development.