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Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline capacity to increase

By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)
Friday, May 16
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) will not oppose increasing the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) to 1.2 million barrels a day but this should not happen at the expense of the country’s interests, a SOCAR representative said.

Recently BP Azerbaijan vice president Rashid Javanshir announced that BTC Co. board of directors had decided to increase the pipeline capacity by the end of 2008, at a cost of USD 70 million.

The highest daily transit of oil through the pipeline was recorded in January, at over 900 000 barrels and the planned capacity increase will enable it to transit 1.2 million barrels per day, according to Azerbaijani news agency ABC.

“We expect the pipeline to export one million barrels per day by the end of 2008,” ABC quoted Bill Schrader, BP Azerbaijan president, as saying.