All news

Azerbaijan, Russia agree on minimal annual throughput of oil

The decision was made on Tuesday at the bilateral talks on the trasportation of Azerbaijani oil via Russia’s territory

BAKU, September 6 (Itar-Tass) — Azerbaijan and Russia have approved of a minimal annual amount of oil to be pumped through the Baku-Novoriossiisk pipeline - 1.5 million tonnes.

“The decision was made on Tuesday at the bilateral talks on the trasportation of Azerbaijani oil via Russia’s territory,” Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Ministry spokesman, Azer Mensimli, told Itar-Tass.

“The agreement on the minimal amount of oil to be transported is the first positive result, reached by the two sides in discussing amendments that are to be made to the interstate agreement on the transportation of Azerbaijani oil through Russian territory, signed in January 18, 1996,” Mensimli said.

According to the Azerbaijani official, the two sides are considering “the entire range of issues, including commercial and technical ones, as well as issues related with transportation of oil through the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline."

"Of course, they discuss tariffs for the pumping of oil,” he said, adding that the current price was set at 15.67 dollars per a tonne.

Anatoly Yanovsky, the Deputy Minister of Energy, heads the Russian delegation at the talks and the Azerbaijani delegation is headed by Industry and Energy Minister Natik Aliyev. The delegations include representatives of the Russian oil transportation company Transneft and the state-run oil company of Azerbaijan, which are operators of the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline.

The pipeline Baku-Novorossiisk was commissioned on October 25, 1997.

The interstate treaty on the transit of Azerbaijani oil through the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline envisages the transportation of five million tonnes of oil annually. But because of the lack of a sufficient amount of oil in recent years Azerbaijan has transported no more than two million tonnes of oil by this pipeline. It explained that both of its refineries increased production.