Baku News

11-10-2006 - The New Anatolian - Turcas Petroleum A.S started negotiations for the establishment of a joint venture with State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), the owner of 25 percent shares of BTC pipeline. A statement sent from Turcas to ?stanbul Stock Exchange said: "In accordance with the company's executive board decision dated Nov 09, 2006 and numbered 2006/26, our company has initiated negotiations for the development of cooperation opportunities and the establishment of a joint venture with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) for the production, exportation, processing and marketing home and abroad of crude oil and natural gas as well as the foundation of a refinery and a petrochemical facility and other related issues. Developments in this process will be shared with the public. Socar, established some 150 years ago, is entitled with its several enterprises to the crude oil and natural gas production of Azerbaijan, the operation of two refineries and pipeline systems, and the import, export, and supply of oil and natural gas. Following the agreement signed by 11 companies from 8 countries in 1994 for the Joint Development and Production Sharing of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli sites on the Azerbaijani side of the Caspian Sea, 26 individual Production Sharing Agreements have been signed between Socar and other international companies. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, with its length of 1750 kilometers, has been designed to carry 1 million barrels of crude oil from the Caspian Sea to the world markets per day. The amount of crude oil that Socar, as the owner of 25 percent shares of the BTC pipeline, will export via this pipeline has been rising incrementally, enabling SOCAR to play a crucial role in total oil shipments.