Georgia expects the resumption of oil transshipment along the Baku-Supsa route in 2024, the Economy and Sustainable Development Minister of Georgia Levan Davitashvili said, Report informs.
Regular fuel supplies through this pipeline were suspended in 2022.
According to the minister, Georgia expects to reach a transit volume of 1 million tons per year.
“The position of the Azerbaijani side on the use of the oil pipeline is very important, and here we are having an intensive dialogue, since this pipeline has been operating for Azerbaijani oil since the spring of 1999. The transit of Kazakhstan’s oil through it is now being discussed, and this oil is of a different type. I think that we will have certainty on the main issues, and we hope that the pumping of oil from Kazakhstan will begin this year. In the future, we think that we will be able to transship more than a million tons of oil per year. I hope that the transportation of oil will begin this year," said Davitashvili.
The Energy Ministry of Azerbaijan also confirmed that the resumption of oil pumping along the Baku-Supsa route could begin this year.
The Baku-Supsa oil pipeline can transport up to 5 million tons of fuel per year.
Since 1999, Azerbaijan has used the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline to transship fuel from the Chirag field. In the spring of 2022, it was decided to suspend fuel supplies along this route due to transportation problems. All Azerbaijani oil is now exported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline.
Last year Azerbaijan offered Kazakhstan to transport 5 million tons of Kazakh oil per year via the Baku-Supsa pipeline. If an agreement was reached, it was expected that it would be oil from the Kashagan field. In 2023, supplies of Kazakh oil via the BTC route increased 5.5 times, to 1.39 million tons.
Baku-Supsa is a pipeline for transporting Caspian oil from the Sangachal terminal near Baku on the Caspian Sea to the Georgian port of Supsa, located on the Black Sea.