SOCAR, KazMunayGas mull increasing volumes of Kazakh oil transit via BTC

SOCAR and KazMunayGas are currently discussing the issue of increasing the volume of Kazakh oil transit via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, Deputy Energy Minister of Azerbaijan Orkhan Zeynalov, who took part in the first meeting of Central Asian energy ministers in Astana, Kazakhstan, told Report.

However, Orkhan Zeynalov found it difficult to say how much it is planned to increase the volume of Kazakh oil transportation via Azerbaijan's main oil export pipeline.

Zeynalov recalled that a draft agreement "On Strategic Partnership in the Field of Energy between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan" has been prepared to further deepen energy cooperation between the two countries.

"I am confident that the signing of the document will help raise our relations to a strategic level," the deputy minister emphasized.

In general, Azerbaijan's cooperation with Central Asian countries is developing fruitfully both bilaterally and multilaterally, the deputy minister said, speaking at the Astana meeting on Tuesday.

According to him, the resumption of transportation of Kazakh oil via the BTC pipeline since March last year is particularly worth noting. "The positive dynamics of this cooperation allows us to increase the level of oil transportation in the future," Zeynalov said.

According to the press service of the national company KazMunayGas, in 2023, just over one million tons of Kazakh oil were sent from the port of Aktau to the BTC. In the first half of 2024, this figure exceeded 700,000 tons.

A month ago, the heads of KazMunayGas and SOCAR met in Baku and discussed the possibility of increasing the supply of Kazakh oil via the Trans-Caspian route.

In 2022, KazMunayGas and SOCAR signed a five-year agreement on oil transit along the Aktau-Baku-Ceyhan route with an annual volume of 1.5 million tons.

Kulpash Konyrova