KazTransOil to increase oil transportation via Caspian Sea 70%
ASTANA. March 11 (Interfax) - KazTransOil is holding negotiations with transit countries on increasing oil volume transportation through the Caspian Sea from 3 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes annually, KazTransOil CEO Kairgeldy Kabyldin said.
"We currently transport around 3 million tonnes of Tengiz crude on the Baku-Black Sea route across the Caspian Sea. We expect this volume to be maintained [in 2013]. Now the issue of increasing this volume to 5 million tonnes is under review, but everything will depend on whether we are able to reach a tariff agreement with transit countries," Kabyldin told a Monday press conference in Astana.
"We are in talks aimed at reaching an agreement in order for this route to be competitive with the other routes," Kabyldin added.
Kazakhstan transports crude via oil-loading terminals in Aktau through the Caspian Sea to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Kazakhstan is working on the creation of the Kazakhstan-Caspian Transportation System (KCTS) for oil.
KCTS is aimed at exporting the growing volumes of Kazakh oil produced primarily at the Kashagan field in the Caspian to international markets along the future Eskene-Kuryk pipeline on the Kazakh Caspian coast to an oil terminal from which tankers will deliver the oil to Azerbaijan for further transport through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Initially the KCTS is expected to supply 25 million tonnes of oil a year through BTC to global markets. Capacity will later be increased to 38 million tonnes a year.
The entire KCTS project will cost an estimated $4 billion, KazMunayGas said. The project is to be financed with outside investment.