Kazakhstan is exploring the possibility of increasing its annual oil shipments through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from the current 1.5 million tons to 20 million tons, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Energy, Almasadam Satkaliyev, during a government hour in the country’s parliament on Monday.
“For 2024, Kazakhstan plans to supply 1.5 million tons of oil through BTC. We are studying the prospects of increasing shipments through this route to up to 20 million tons per year,” said Satkaliyev. Thus, the volume of oil transportation via BTC could increase more than 13 times.
From the minister’s remarks, it appears that to transport such a volume of oil, which is extracted in the Atyrau region (in northwest Kazakhstan), a new main oil pipeline will be constructed to the Caspian terminal at Kurik (south of Aktau).
“In the long term, we are also working on a project to construct the Eskene-Kurik pipeline, with an estimated capacity of 20-30 million tons per year,” Satkaliyev added. The minister noted that there is interest in increasing Kazakhstan’s oil exports via BTC, “both from our side and from our Azerbaijani partners.”
It is worth noting that Kazakhstan began oil supplies via BTC in March of last year as part of its efforts to diversify its oil export routes.
