Kazakhstan considering 3 routes for oil transportation through Azerbaijan

The Kazakh Ministry of Energy jointly with JSC NC KazMunayGas is currently considering three routes for oil transportation in the direction of Azerbaijan - Aktau-Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Aktau-Baku-Supsa and Aktau-Baku-Batumi, Report informs referring to the Kazakh media.

“Additional routes for transporting oil in export directions are being worked out. Negotiations are underway on transportation issues with the Azerbaijani side, work in this direction continues,” the ministry said.

The press service added that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) is the most cost-effective route for transporting oil for export for Kazakh shippers: “Consideration of the development of additional routes will depend on their potential, economic feasibility and other related factors, including technical ones, as well as taking into account the growth of oil production in Kazakhstan.”

At the end of October, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Energy Elnur Soltanov reported that the country was waiting for guaranteed volumes of oil from Kazakhstan to be pumped through the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline.

In the summer, Dauren Karabaev, deputy chairman of the board for economics and finance at KazMunayGas, said that Kazakhstan was negotiating the transportation of oil through Azerbaijan. He specified that Azerbaijan has two oil pipelines: Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Supsa, which could potentially be used to transport Kazakh oil.

The throughput capacity of Baku-Supsa, which is currently not in operation, is more than 7 million tons of oil per year.