05-04-07 The BP-run Baku-Ceyhan pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey has reached its full capacity of 1 mm bpd, the British company said. The 1,768-km pipeline, launched in May 2006, pumps crude from the giant Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) group of fields in the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
"The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is now capable of transporting the projected one mm bpd of oil after we put all the pumping stations into operation," BP Azerbaijan said.

The pipeline ships about 700,000 bpd of oil from the "ACG" fields with reserves estimated at 6.59 bn barrels of oil. Only two of the ACG fields, Azeri and Chirag, are already producing. Guneshli will be put on stream later this decade.
To ensure transportation of the field's increasing output, BP is planning to expand the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline's capacity to 1.6 mm bpd.

TengizChevrOil, a group led by US supermajor Chevron, is also going to use the pipeline to ship Kazakh crude to Turkey. But a Baku-Ceyhan official inAzerbaijan said earlier the first shipments would be delayed by at least six months to early 2008.
He said the group, which also includes ExxonMobil, Kazakh state oil company KazMunaiGaz, a BP-led joint venture and Russia's LUKoil, needed more time to clear "many issues" by the venture participants.