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Azerbaijan says oil exports via Iran is temporary

28 August 2008 16:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vugar Mustafayev, Elmin Ibrahimov - APA-Economics. State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR is exporting crude oil to Iran to compensate for export constraints imposed by a pipeline blast in Turkey and war in Georgia. Early this week the first batch of oil was delivered to Iran for export.
The swap arrangement allows selling up to 300,000 tonnes via the Persian Gulf over two months.
SOCAR will ship oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field across the Caspian Sea to the Iranian port of Neka, then Iran will export an equivalent volume out of its Middle East Gulf facilities.
"Despite the resumption of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline, SOCAR is shipping oil via Iran in order to speed its delivery to the world market. This is a temporary compensation for delay. This will continue until the export volumes decreased this month reach the regular level,â€ said a source in the government.
The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports oil from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkeyâ€™s Mediterranean coast, resumed tanker loadings early this week following fire damage earlier this month.
BP, Europeâ€™s second-largest oil company, and other exporters of Azeri oil have been unable to use the 1,768- kilometer (1,100-mile) link since Aug. 5 when a blaze engulfed the pipeline in Erzincan province in northeastern Turkey.
Also, oil shipments from Azerbaijan by rail were also hindered by happenings in Georgia.