In January-February, Azerbaijan increased oil exports via BTC to 4.6 million tons

BAKU, March 17 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan’s oil exports via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline rose to 4.6 million tons in January-February 2023 from 4.3 million tons a year earlier, the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan reported.

The volume of transit oil pumped by BTC fell to 626,700 tons from 800,900 tons.

Azerbaijan pumped 76.5% of the total volume of oil exports through BTC, which in January-February 2023 amounted to 6.048 million tons.

The total length of BTC, which delivers Caspian oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast for onward shipment by tankers, is 1,768 kilometers. The capacity of the pipeline allows for the export of 1.2 million barrels of oil per day. According to the project, the capacity of BTC can be increased to 2.2 million barrels per day.

BTC is expected to pump oil at 660,000 barrels a day this year. Of these, 440,000 barrels will fall on oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field, 100,000 barrels for condensate from the Shah Deniz field, and 120,000 barrels for oil from the Caspian region.

(Naila Bagirov)