Baku News

24 Apr 2007 - APA News - BTC Co. has been studying the prospects of expansion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan daily throughput capacity to 1.2 million barrels from the current operating capacity of one million barrels a day. “We are testing the possibility of expansion through antiwear additive. The daily capacity may reach 1.4 million to 1.6 million barrels in future,” said BTC co commercial director David Wolfe. He added that those who are not the shareholder of the BTC Co. can also take part in expansion project. It is slated to bring the daily capacity of the pipeline to no less than 1.2 million barrels by 2010 to be able to transport Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil and Shah Deniz condensate. The current export rate through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline runs on schedule and the pipeline is in the throughput capacity of delivering one million barrels per day (approx. 50 million tonnes per year). The design capacity of one million barrels of oil per day has been reached after the final commissioning of all pump station to run on gas. The Ceyhan Terminal is able to fill 1-2 tankers per day. While the pipeline initially carried only Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil, the first delivery of Shah Deniz condensate into the line was made in January this year and it is expected that future volumes will include those from across the Caspian, possibly commencing by the end of 2007. BTC Co. shareholders are BP (30.1%), AzBTC (25.00%), Chevron (8.90%), Statoil (8.71%), TPAO (6.53%), ENI (5.00%), Total (5.00%), Itochu (3.40%), INPEX (2.50%), ConocoPhillips (2.50%) and Hess (2.36%).