BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 17. Azerbaijan's state
oil company SOCAR and Kazakhstan's KazMunayGas (KMG) have
successfully continued the transit of Kazakh crude through
Azerbaijan, bringing total volumes transported to 4 million tons,
Trend reports via SOCAR.
The 427th shipment of Kazakh oil departed from Aktau port on 12
March aboard the President Heydar Aliyev tanker and arrived at
Azertrans’ Sangachal Terminal the following day. Of the total
volume moved to date, 3.8 million tons originated from the Tengiz
field, with a further 200,000 tons from the Kashagan field.
The first Tengiz shipment reached Baku on 23 March 2023, while
the first cargo of Kashagan crude arrived on 27 January 2025. Oil
delivered to Sangachal is subsequently transported via the
Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to the Ceyhan terminal in
Türkiye and exported to global markets. SOCAR is represented in the
project by its subsidiary SOCAR Midstream Operations LLC.
The transit arrangement traces back to a November 2022 Framework
Agreement between SOCAR and KMG, which provided for the annual
transport of 1.5 million tons of Tengiz crude via BTC. In March
2024, the parties signed a Strategic Cooperation Memorandum to
increase annual volumes and facilitate the purchase and sale of
Kazakh crude. On 15 January 2025, a further framework was agreed to
allow the transit of an additional 240,000 tons of Kashagan oil
annually alongside existing Tengiz shipments.
The BTC pipeline, which also carries Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil
and Shah Deniz condensate, as well as crude from other sources, has
a current throughput of 1.2 million barrels per day, equivalent to
50 million tons per year. Since its commissioning in June 2006, the
1,768 km pipeline has transported some 619 million tons of crude —
over 4.7 billion barrels — and loaded 6,145 tankers at Ceyhan for
delivery to international markets.
