BTC Co. is working closely with SOCAR to manage the crude oil in the tanks at the Ceyhan terminal, which has been assessed as non-compliant with the accepted specification (due to the presence of organic chlorides – ed.), said Tamam Bayatlı, Head of the Press Service of BP-Azerbaijan, in response to APA-Economics’ inquiry.
“BTC Co. continues to take all necessary measures to completely resolve the issue,” Tamam Bayatlı noted.
According to her, currently, crude oil loading operations onto tankers at the Ceyhan terminal and export operations via the BTC pipeline are ongoing.
“BTC Co. continues comprehensive assessment work, and within this framework, the quality of crude oil is checked before each loading operation at the Ceyhan terminal,” Tamam Bayatlı emphasized.
Recall that in July of this year, BTC Co. received information about a potential quality issue related to organic chlorides in some shipments of crude oil transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. BTC Co. immediately conducted comprehensive quality assessments of the crude oil at all facilities along the pipeline.
The results of these evaluations showed that the quality of crude oil at all facilities located along the pipeline up to the Ceyhan terminal complies with the accepted specification. In addition, an assessment of the quality of crude oil inside the tanks at the Ceyhan terminal was also carried out. As a result, the presence of organic chlorides in the crude oil in some tanks was determined. Appropriate measures were immediately taken, and these tanks were isolated.
Currently, the BTC pipeline primarily transports oil produced from Azerbaijan's "Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli" block and Shah Deniz condensate. Additionally, other regional volumes of Caspian crude oil and condensate (from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and other volumes produced by SOCAR in Azerbaijan) are also transported via the BTC pipeline.
The shareholders of BTC Co. are: BP (30.1%), SOCAR (32.97%), MOL (8.90%), TPAO (6.53%), Eni (5%), TotalEnergies (5%), ITOCHU (3.4%), ONGC Videsh (3.1%), ExxonMobil (2.5%), and INPEX (2.5%).
