An Azeri official says Baku may export its oil via Iran after explosion and conflict disrupted its routes through Turkey and Georgia.
On Wednesday, an official with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (Socar) who did not want to be named told Bloomberg that Baku had awarded a tender for 300,000 tons, of Azeri Light crude to Middle East Petrol - a Dubai-based oil trading and shipping company - to load the oil in a month or so.
The official added the export through the country’s southern neighbor depended on the status of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline would. If the BTC is operating there’ll be no need to export via Iran, he said.
BTC pipeline, the world’s second largest, has been shut down since early August after Kurdish separatists bombed a section of it that stretches through Turkey.
The military conflict between Russia and Georgia has also led to the closure of the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline that normally transports a daily 90,000 barrels of crude from the Azeri capital to the Georgian port in the Black Sea.
According to a report by International Oil Daily, if Socar decides to go through with the export through Iran, Middle East Petrol will take delivery of the oil at the Sangachal Terminal, situated to the south of Baku.
The report added that from then on the Swiss Vitol company will load Iran’s light crude, as it has a long-term contract with Iran’s Nikoo Consulting Inc. under which it delivers Azeri oil to Iran at the Caspian Sea port of Neka and load an equal amount of Iranian oil at Khark Island, in the Persian Gulf.