"BTC Co. has received a report that there is a potential quality issue related to organic chlorides in some shipments of crude oil transported via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC)," Tamam Bayatli, head of the press service of BP-Azerbaijan, said in response to an inquiry from APA-Economics.
According to her, BTC Co. immediately carried out a comprehensive assessment of the quality of crude oil at all facilities located 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. Work is underway to investigate and completely eliminate the issue," Tamam Bayatli noted.
According to her, currently, the operations of loading crude oil into tankers at the Ceyhan terminal are ongoing, and these operations are carried out only from tanks whose quality is assessed as meeting the accepted specifications.
Tamam Bayatli added that export operations through the BTC pipeline are also continuing: “BTC Co. also states that for a certain period of time, pre-loading samples will be checked at the Ceyhan terminal to ensure that the quality of crude oil in each newly loaded tanker meets the accepted specifications.”
Note that Reuters and Bloomberg reported on the detection of organic chlorides in crude oil exported from Azerbaijan via BTC, which could damage the equipment of oil refineries. It was reported that some batches of oil have already reached Europe.
According to Reuters, after the fact of pollution was determined, the loading of crude oil into tankers was stopped at the Turkish port of Ceyhan. No loadings were carried out between July 19 and 23.
Italy's Eni SpA said it had received some of the contaminated oil, some of which has already entered its refineries.
Reuters sources said at least three to four batches of oil were contaminated, sending crude oil prices to a four-year low.
For information, the BTC pipeline currently carries mainly oil produced in Azerbaijan's Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block and Shah Deniz condensate. In addition, other regional Caspian crude oil and condensate volumes (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and other volumes produced by SOCAR in Azerbaijan) are also transported via BTC.
BTC Co.'s shareholders: 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%).
