SOCAR boosts oil transportation via Baku-Novorossiysk

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) increased oil transportation via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline by 64.3 percent in 2021, local media sources have reported.

During the last year, SOCAR exported 1.7 million tons of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.

"Transneft's oil transit from Azerbaijan to the port of Novorossiysk amounted to 1.7 million tons of oil in 2021. At that, 84,760 tons of Azerbaijani oil was exported through this route in December," the statement reads.

In January 2021, SOCAR and Russia's Transneft signed a deal to pump over 1 million tons of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2021.

It should be noted that no crude oil was transported via this pipeline from Azerbaijan in January, as all SOCAR volumes were transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that passes through Turkey. SOCAR resumed the oil exports via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline on February 15.

Azerbaijan has been transporting its oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline since 1997. The maximum capacity of the pipeline is 105,000 barrels per day. The pipeline has three pump stations - Sangachal, Sumgayit and Siyazan. The diameter of the pipeline is 530 mm, and the length of the pipeline is 1,330 km, out of which 231 km is the Azerbaijani section.

In 2020, SOCAR reduced its exports via this route by 30 percent to around 613,000 tons of oil.

SOCAR is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan. The company owns two refineries in Azerbaijan, one in Turkey, as well as networks of petrol stations in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Romania and Switzerland.