BTC exports 6.7m tons of crude oil

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline that takes Azerbaijani oil to Europe via Turkey exported about 6.7 million tons of crude oil in the first quarter of 2022, the pipeline’s operator BP Azerbaijan has said in its recent report.

The oil was loaded on 68 tankers exported from Turkey’s Ceyhan terminal.

From January-March, about $9 million was spent on operating expenditure and about $4 million in capital expenditure on the BTC project.

Overall, BTC exported over 509 million tons of crude oil loaded on 5,007 tankers to the world markets since the pipeline became operational in June 2006 till the end of the first quarter of 2022.

On 23 March 2022, BTC reached a significant milestone by loading the 5000th tanker of oil transported from the Sangachal terminal near Baku across Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Ceyhan in Turkey.

The BTC pipeline currently carries mainly the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli crude oil and the Shah Deniz condensate from Azerbaijan. Other volumes of crude oil and condensate also continue to be transported via BTC.

Furthermore, in the first three months of 2022, the Sangachal terminal exported more than 57 million barrels of oil and condensate to world markets. This includes about 51 million barrels through BTC and around 6 million barrels through the Western Route Export Pipeline.

On average, around 71 million cubic meters of Shah Deniz gas were exported from the terminal daily. Gas is exported via the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), the SCP expansion system, and via Azerbaijan’s pipelines connecting the terminal’s gas processing facilities with Azerigas’ national grid system.

The daily capacity of the terminal’s processing systems is currently 1.2 million barrels of crude oil and condensate, and around 100 million cubic meters of gas, including 81 million cubic meters for Shah Deniz gas.

Likewise, the daily average throughput of the South Caucasus Pipeline was 56.2 million cubic meters of gas during the quarter. The South Caucasus Pipeline spent around $14 million in operating expenditure and around $0.3 million in capital expenditure.

The SCP has been operational since late 2006, transporting Shah Deniz gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. The expanded section of the pipeline commenced commercial deliveries to Turkey in June 2018 and to Europe in December 2020.

The South Caucasus Pipeline was built to export Shah Deniz gas from Azerbaijan to Georgia and Turkey. The pipeline starts from the Sangachal terminal near Baku. It follows the route of the BTC crude oil pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey, where it is linked to the Turkish gas distribution system. 

The BTC pipeline is a transport line for Azerbaijani oil from the Caspian Sea to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey, and then to European markets via the Mediterranean Sea. The official opening ceremony of the BTC oil pipeline took place in Turkey in July 2006. The total length of the pipeline is 1,768 km, of which 443 km pass through the territory of Azerbaijan; 249 km to Georgia; 1,076 km to Turkey. The projected capacity is 50 million tonnes of oil per year or one million barrels per day. Light oil produced at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field is transported via BTC.

The Sangachal terminal is an oil and gas terminal that receives, processes, stores, and exports crude oil and gas produced from all currently operated BP assets in the Caspian basin and has room for expansion. The terminal includes oil and gas processing facilities, the first pump station for the BTC oil pipeline, the South Caucasus gas pipeline (SCP) compressor, and other facilities.