Oil & Gas News

Unmanned aircraft to protect pipelines
Unmanned aircrafts will protect the Georgian section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) gas pipelines. The president of the Georgian International Oil Corporation, Georgi Chanturiya, was speaking to journalists. These unmanned planes will be manufactured at the aviation plant in Tbilisi. Chanturiya said that the Georgian, Turkish and Azerbaijani governments are continuing efforts to ensure maximum security for the pipelines. The special security service has already been established in Georgia for this purpose. Mr. Chanturiya also said a conference, East-West: energy corridor, to be organized in Washington on February 24-25, will discuss the security issues of these major pipelines. The presidents of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan and the Georgian International Oil Corporation, representatives of US business circles and international financial institutions will attend the conference.

No problem with BTC funding
BP-Azerbaijan president David Woodward and SOCAR president Natiq Aliyev left for the US on Sunday. During the visit, they will meet with representatives of the international financing companies on funding the BTC main oil pipeline. In an interview  BP-Azerbaijan president Woodward has said that there will be no problems with allocating loans, even if there were, it would not affect the pipe construction, as in this case the sponsor group members will use internal means to finance the project. Touching on the issue of the Sah-Daniz project, Woodward noted that the first stage of the project's development would be sanctioned on February 27 and the management board would confirm it. The construction works are due to start late in  March.

Taurus to purchase Azeri oil
International company Taurus has won a tender to purchase the March consignment of oil transported by SOCAR through the Baku- Novorossiysk pipeline, a source in SOCAR told AssA-Irada.
The source said that it is expected to ship this consignment of 132,000 tons from March 15 to 20 from the port of Novorossiysk.
On March 21, SOCAR will accept bids from international companies to buy two consignments of Azerbaijani oil of 80,000 tons each, and is counting on Transneft to confirm a schedule for their receipt and shipment in Novorossiysk by that time. The results of this tender will be announced on March 24.
Earlier, SOCAR had planned to export 250,000 tons of oil in March, but if Novorossiysk can accept more oil, then 290,000 tons of oil will be transported through the pipeline, the source said.

SOCAR shuts down Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) halted transportation of oil along the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline on February 19, according to a source within the group. Pumping was suspended at the request of Transneft, the pipeline operator, which plans to carry out maintenance work. Currently, the pipeline is full of oil and there are problems with emptying reservoirs to store oil in Novorossiysk.
It will be possible to restart transportation only on March 1.
With a planned transportation volume for February of 255,000 tons, the actual amount transported was 140,000 tons. A similar situation occurred in January this year, when SOCAR pumped 220,000 tons of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, instead of the planned 250,000 tons. SOCAR transported 2.5m tons of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2002 and plans to ship the same amount in 2003. SOCAR pays $15.67 per ton to Transneft for oil transportation.

Oil, gas condensate production up 5.6 per cent
Azerbaijan increased oil and gas condensate production in January 2003 by 5.6 per cent year-on-year to 1.325m tons.
The rise due mainly to an increase in output by the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, which produced 556,600 tons of crude in January, compared to 57,900 tons in January last year.
Meanwhile, gas output in January fell by 3 per cent to 437.3m cu m.
The oil share in energy reserves in January this year increased from 74.3 per cent in the same period of 2001 to 75.4 per cent. Production of oil and gas condensate in Azerbaijan in 2002 rose by 2.9 per cent to 15.335m tons against the 2001 indicator, while gas output decreased by 7.1 per cent to 5.14bn cu m.

BP signs 3600 contracts with BTC affected communities
The press service of BP-Azerbaijan company has told AssA-Irada that nearly 3600 contracts were signed with owners of land along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main export pipeline thus far. According to BP-Azerbaijan, the same approach is being applied in Georgia to simultaneously complete the process in April with Azerbaijan.