Kazakhstan suspends oil transit

Kazakh Company Tengiz Shevr Oil has suspended oil transit through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Kazakh Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sauat Minbaev stated that this move is connected with an increase in transit tariffs by Azerbaijan. The Minister said that Chevron is the main company getting its oil from this route and if it has doubts about pricing it could begin searching for other routes.

In January 2010 Kazakh oil was not transported through the BTC pipeline. Oil is now generally transported by railway to Batumi, where Kazakh Company Kazmunaigas owns the terminal.

In 2009 BTC transported 1.9 million tonnes of Kazakh oil. The first Kazakh oil went through this pipeline in October 2008.