Oil export via BTC to reach 50 million tons in 2009: SOCAR president

The meeting focused on cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union.

“Bildt said the EU is interested in developing close relations with Azerbaijan in all areas. He stressed energy is more important area of bilateral relations and noted the EU is interested in Azerbaijan as an energy exporter.”

He said South Corridor project occupies a special place in EU-Azerbaijan cooperation.

Noting the efforts made by the EU for the project of South Corridor, Abdullayev said Azerbaijan has been actively involved in major regional projects.

“The SOCAR president said 50 million tons of oil will be transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and 6 billion cubic meters of gas will be exported to Turkey via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum (BTE) gas pipeline in 2009. He also noted the possibility of increasing BTE capacity up to 20 billion cubic meters of gas per year and the possibility of laying new lines through the corridor which this pipeline crosses.”

Abdullayev also said that there are great opportunities to implement Nabucco, TGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy) and TAP gas pipelines projects within the project South Corridor and added that Azerbaijan which possesses energy resources in large quantities ready to take part in all the proposed projects benefitial from the commercial point of view.

Bildt in turn said that the EU attaches great importance to Azerbaijan as a transit country in terms of transportation of energy resources from Central Asia to the West.

“Azerbaijan has a well-developed transport infrastructure and is ready to implement a reliable transport of hydrocarbons from the Eastern coast of the Caspian,” Abdullayev said.

According to BP, nearly 32.9 million tons of crude oil and condensate was pumped via BTC in 2008.

The length of the BTC pipeline is 1767 km, 443 km of which runs via Azerbaijan, 248 km via Georgia and 1,076 via Turkey. BTC capacity is 50 million tons of oil per year.

BTC shareholders are BP (30.1%); SOCAR (25.00%); Chevron (8.90%); Statoil (8.71%); TPAO (6.53%); ENI (5.00%); Itochu (3.40%); ConocoPhillips (2.50% ); INPEX (2.50%), Total (5.00%) and Amerada Hess (2.36%).

/Interfax Azerbaijan/