Foreign oil companies start transporting Kazakh oil with BTC

Total&Dunga, led by France's Total, started to supply its oil via Aktau port to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline in September, the sources said, Report informs, citing Reuters.

"Last month, it supplied 25,000 tons via the route," they added. "The company plans to ship up to 200,000 tons of oil via the route by the end of the year."

Total&Dunga and Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry didn't immediately answer Reuters' requests for comment.

Total&Dunga is owned by Total E & P Dunga GmbH (60%), which is also the project's operator, Oman Oil Company Limited (20%), and Partex Kazakhstan Corporation (20%).

Kazakhstan's Tengizchevroil (TCO) and Total&Dunga are starting to use new export routes for their oil as they look to sidestep disruptions to the CPC pipeline and the risks of transit via Russia, two sources told Reuters.

TCO, led by Chevron (CVX.N), plans to start oil supplies via rail to Finland with a 1,000-ton shipment this month, the two sources familiar with the company's plans said. The TCO consortium is owned by Chevron (50%), Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) (25%), Kazmunaigaz (20%), and Lukoil's Lukarco (5%).

In July, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who has sought to balance relations with Russia, the West, and China, ordered a study into building a pipeline across the Caspian Sea, a previously proposed project that would carry Kazakh oil to Europe while bypassing Russia.