The Transportation of Oil

There are three main oil pipelines transporting oil from Azerbaijan to its neighbours and on to world markets. These are:

• The Baku-Novorossiysk Pipeline
• The Baku-Supsa Pipeline
• The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline    

In addition, railway lines traversing the length of Azerbaijan are also used to convey oil to the Batumi and Kulevi terminals located on the Black Sea along the coast of Georgia.

The Baku-Novorossiysk Pipeline

The Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline has existed since the Soviet era (1983). The pipeline was used to transport crude oil to Baku from Grozny for processing. Since 1997, this pipeline has been used to transport oil in the opposite direction from Azerbaijan to the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. Some restoration work was carried out on this pipeline. It was subsequently used for the transportation of oil by ACG and SOCAR until 2008. Additionally, beginning in 2001, oil extracted from onshore deposits operated by SOCAR, in cooperation with its foreign partners, has also been transported along this pipeline.    

The transmission capacity of this pipeline is 100,000 barrels per day (13,500 tons/day). The total length of the pipeline is 1,330 km, 231 km of which is located in the territory of Azerbaijan.

The Baku-Novorossiysk Pipeline began exporting oil extracted by SOCAR and SOCAR's onshore enterprises after the BTC pipeline’s launch to full production capacity. It is currently operated collaboratively between Azerbaijan and its foreign partners, AK Transneft OJSC of Russia, and SOCAR in Azerbaijan.

The Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline has 3 pumping stations (Sangachal, Sumgayit and Siyazan). The metering station of the pipeline is located in Shirvanovka.

The Baku-Supsa Pipeline

The Baku-Supsa Pipeline (Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP)) transports crude oil from offshore oil fields from within the Azerbaijani coastal territories in the Caspian Sea to world markets through Georgia.  The crude oil is shipped via tankers, loaded at the Supsa terminal in Georgia, which then makes its way through the Bosphorus to European markets.

The restoration of the Baku-Supsa Pipeline began in 1994 and was completed in 1998. The official inauguration ceremony of the pipeline took place in April 1999. WREP was originally constructed during the Soviet era. During its reconstruction, portions of the pipeline, as well as related technical equipment, were completely replaced.

It was planned to transport the first oil extracted from the Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli fields to the Supsa port on the Black Sea coast of Georgia.

BP currently operates the pipeline. The length of the pipeline is 833 km, of which 456 km is in Azerbaijani territory. The transmission capacity of the pipeline is 150,000 barrels per day (20,000 tons/day).

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline (BTC)

The BTC Pipeline’s construction, which began in April 2003, was completed in 2005. It was named in honour of former President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev.

The first oil tanker was loaded with ‘Azeri Light’ oil at Ceyhan sea port on June 4, 2006. The BTC Pipeline, with a total length of 1,768 km, runs through the territory of three countries: Azerbaijan (443 km), Georgia (249 km) and Turkey (1076 km).

The pipeline was primarily intended to transport oil extracted from ACG fields to the port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, but opportunities arose to use this pipeline to transport oil from other countries as well. For example, the transportation of Kazakh and Turkmen crude oil via the BTC Pipeline. Transmission capacity of this pipeline is 1.2 million barrels (160,000 tons/day), which can be expanded further. At present, BP is the operator of the Azerbaijani and Georgian sections of the pipeline. BOTAS International Limited (BIL) is the operator of the Turkish section of the pipeline.

Transportation By Railway (Baku-Kulevi/Batumi)

After repair and restoration work on the Baku-Batumi railway, originally built in 1883, SOCAR began transporting crude oil to the Georgian Black Sea Port of Batumi in 1999. This route has since been actively used for the transportation of oil extracted from Tengiz and other fields of Kazakhstan, as well as for Turkmen oil products in recent years, in addition to the oil extracted from the ACG fields belonging to companies not included in the list of the founders of the BTC Pipeline. Beyond oil products, the pipeline is also used to transport gas condensate extracted from the Shah Deniz field.

The Baku-Kulevi, route commissioned in 2008, is used to transport Azerbaijani and Turkmen oil products, as well as oil extracted from Kazakhstan's Tengiz field, to the Port of Kulevi on the Black Sea coast of Georgia.