BP to boost pipeline capacity from Azeri oilfields
BP said it will boost capacity of the pipeline from its Azeri oilfields to Georgia in 2003, awaiting construction by
2005 of a major pipeline for Azeri oil to Turkey. The head of BP Azerbaijan, David Woodward, told the company was
studying a project to increase the capacity of the pipeline from the Azeri capital Baku to Georgia's Black Sea port
of Supsa to 160,000 bpd from 140,000 bpd.
He said BP planned to complete the study by the end of 2002 and upgrade the pipeline by mid-2003. Currently the bulk
of crude shipped through the Baku-Supsa pipeline comes from the BP-operated offshore Chirac oilfield in the Azeri
sector of the Caspian Sea.
Azerbaijan also exports up to 60,000 bpd of crude via the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. Both pipelines will
be superseded when a BP-led consortium builds a major 1 mm bpd pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan in 2005.
Chirac is the first field to produce crude from a production sharing agreement between Azerbaijan and a BP-led group,
which also plans to develop two neighbouring giant fields.
