Industry and Energy

Industry and Energy

36.2 million tons of crude pumped through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan in 2009

08 January 2010 16:08 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Nijat Mustafayev â€“ APA-Economics. 2.8 million tonnes of oil was pumped abroad through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline during December 2009, said SOCAR.

According to the company, in total 36.2 million tonnes of oil were exported through this route in the full year of 2009.

Since the launch of the BTC pipeline, 106.5 million tonnes of Azeri Light crude oil was exported through the pipeline.

Besides, 175 300 tonnes of Kazakh oil flowed through the pipeline in December and 1.9 million tonnes during 2009.

Since the launch of Kazakh oil pumping through this route, 2.2 million tones of Kazakh oil has been exported via BTC.

The 1768km BTC pipeline allows over one million barrels of oil a day to be exported safely and responsibly from the Caspian without increasing tanker traffic through the already crowded Turkish Straits.

The pipeline uses 46/42/34â€ diameter pipe. It has eight pump stations and 98 valve stations across the three transit countries. The pipeline crosses more than 1500 rivers and climbs to a high point of 2,800 metres before returning to sea level at Ceyhan.

The BTC Co. shareholders are: BP (30.1 per cent, operator); AzBTC (25 per cent); Chevron (8.9 per cent); Statoil (8.71 per cent); TPAO (6.53 per cent); ENI (5 per cent); Total (5 per cent), Itochu (3.4 per cent); INPEX (2.5 per cent), ConocoPhillips (2.5 per cent) and Hess (2.36 per cent).