BP’s BTC Pipeline Ships 10% Less Oil Through July, Socar Says

The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline delivered 10 percent less crude oil in the first seven months from a year earlier.

The line, known as BTC, shipped 17.88 million metric tons of oil in January through July, down from 19.87 million tons a year earlier, according to data published today on the website of State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan, or Socar. The Baku-based energy producer is a partner in BTC. No reason was given for the drop.

The pipeline, connecting BP’s Sangachal terminal south of the Azeri capital of Baku to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan through Georgia, exports oil from the offshore Azeri- Chirag-Guneshli and Shah Deniz fields, also operated by BP.

Azerbaijan’s crude oil production declined in the first half by 7.1 percent to 22.2 million tons, the State Statistics Committee said last month. The third largest oil producer in the former Soviet Union pumped 45.6 million tons of oil and 25.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at zagayev@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm at htromm@bloomberg.net