Oil transport via BTC drops by 5% in 2021

In 2021, about 26.4 million tons (approximately 200 million barrels) of crude oil and condensate, exported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main export oil pipeline, were loaded on 280 tankers at the Ceyhan terminal and shipped to buyers. Last year, the volume of transportation through BTC was 5.03% less than a year earlier, Report informs, citing a joint statement by the operator of the block, BP-Azerbaijan, and partners on business in 2021.

At present, the BTC pipeline mainly carries ACG oil, and Shah Deniz condensate from Azerbaijan. In addition, other volumes of crude oil and condensate, including oil from Turkmenistan, Russia, and Kazakhstan, are transported through the BTC.

In 2021, $119 million was spent on operating costs on the BTC pipeline, and about $34 million on capital expenditures.

According to BP-Azerbaijan's report for 2021, the operating expenses on BTC in 2021 were $8 million or 7.21% higher than in the same period in 2020, and the volume of capital expenditures increased by $5 million or 17.2% more.

The 1,768-km-long BTC pipeline was commissioned in June 2006 and by the end of 2021, a total of more than 502 million tons (3.77 billion barrels) of crude oil was transported through the pipeline and delivered to world markets by 4,939 tankers from Ceyhan.

On December 12, the BTC pipeline marked the export of a total of 500 million tons of oil from Azerbaijan’s Sangachal terminal to Georgia and Turkey’s Ceyhan terminal.

The shareholders of BTC Co. are BP (30.1%); AzBTC (25%); MOL (8.9%); Equinor (8.71%); TPAO (6.53%); Eni (5%); Total Energies (5%), Itochu (3.4%); Inpex (2.5%), ExxonMobil (2.5%) and ONGC (BTC) Limited (2.36%).