Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, June 19 -– Kazakhstan will begin transporting oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline following an agreement signed June 16 by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Azeribaijan President Ilham Aliev.
Kazakhstan will supply as much as 25 million tonnes/year of oil for the 1,800-km line, which passes through Azerbaijan (443 km), Georgia (248 km), and Turkey (1,076 km).
Kazakh oil will be shipped by tanker from the northern Caspian port of Aktau to Baku. The project envisions the eventual construction of subsea pipelines between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
The Kazakh decision came with substantial international support. US Sec. of Energy Samuel W. Bodman had urged the central Asian nation to accelerate talks on joining the project (OGJ Online, Mar. 14, 2006).
The Turkish Foreign Ministry welcomed Kazakhstan's decision to join BTC, saying it would "strengthen the East-West energy corridor," help diversify energy sources, and decrease the number of tankers passing through the narrow Bosporus and Dardanelles.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said line fill will be complete on July 13. The first cargo of oil transported through the BTC pipeline left Ceyhan in early June.
Kazakhstan produces about 1.3 million b/d of oil, but it expects output to reach 3 million b/d by 2015 largely on the strength of Kashagan offshore field, which is likely to start commercial production by 2009.
Other agreements
Kazakhstan has recently signed two other pipeline agreements.
In April, Kazakhstan and Russia agreed to expand the 1,510-km pipeline that links oil fields in western Kazakhstan to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk (OGJ Online, Apr. 13, 2006).
Last year, Kazakhstan completed a 962-km pipeline that will transport 20 million tonnes/year of Kazakh oil to China.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
