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By Trend

Kazakhstan is interested in ensuring the uninterrupted supply of oil and oil products to world markets, including through the territory of Azerbaijan, Kazakh Deputy Energy Minister Magzum Mirzagaliyev told Trend.

He noted that cooperation in the oil and gas industry is strategically important for Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

"In late 2016 Kazakhstan achieved commercial production in the Kashagan field, so Kazakhstan is interested in ensuring uninterrupted delivery of oil and oil products to world markets, including through the territory of Azerbaijan. In case of transshipping Kashagan oil through Azerbaijan the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline is viewed as an alternative route," Mirzagaliyev said.

He noted that BTC has not been used since the second half of 2015 due to the expansion of the CPC [Caspian Pipeline Consortium] system.

"The prospect of resuming the transportation of Kazakh oil via the Aktau port through Azerbaijan via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline system will depend on the economic attractiveness of this route for Kazakhstan's oil-producing companies," the vice minister said.

He went on to say that one of the main issues of the Kazakh-Azerbaijani cooperation in the oil sector is the transportation of Kazakh oil through the territory of Azerbaijan in the direction of the Batumi Oil Terminal (BNT) in Georgia.

"The transportation of Kazakh oil to the Batumi oil terminal is carried out via the multimodal Aktau-Baku-Batumi scheme: Aktau-Baku is a tanker transportation and Baku-Batumi is a railway transportation In 2016 the volume of transportation of oil and oil products through the Batumi oil terminal amounted to about 3.4 million tons, and for the first nine months of this year it was 1.599 million tons. For further loading of the terminal, KazTransOil JSC conducts appropriate work with all the participants of the transport corridor on an ongoing basis, including with the Azerbaijani side and potential shippers," Mirzagaliyev said.

The total length of the BТС is 1,768 kilometers, including a 443-kilometer section running through Azerbaijan, a 249-kilometer section in Georgia and a 1,076-kilometer section in Turkey

The shareholders of BTC Co, which was established on 1 August 2002 for the implementation of the project, are BP (30.1 percent), AzBTC (25 percent), Chevron (8.9 percent), Statoil (8.71 percent), TRAO (6 , 53 percent), Eni (five percent), Total (five percent), Itochu (3.4 percent), Inpex (2.5 percent), CIECO (2.5 percent) and ONGC (2.36 percent).

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