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Azerbaijan and Russia to pump 3rd states' oil via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline

Azerbaijan and Russia agreed to amend the intergovernmental agreement on the transportation of Azerbaijani oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline

BAKU, February 29 (Itar-Tass) — Azerbaijan and Russia agreed to amend the intergovernmental agreement on the transportation of Azerbaijani oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Industry and Energy Natik Aliyev told reporters here on Wednesday.

“These amendments concern increasing the oil transportation volume through the pipeline using hydrocarbons of third countries and changing the transit price,” the industry and energy minister said. According to him, the Azerbaijani side raised the issue of drawing oil from the third countries to the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline during the preparation of the intergovernmental agreement signed by the two countries in 1996. “However, the Russian side did not agree to that then. Now we have returned to this issue,” Aliyev said.

The minister stressed that the second amendment is about a new scheme of transportation, which is “the more oil we send, the cheaper the tariffs for its transportation.” “The Russian side has agreed,” Aliyev said.

The Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline (also known as the Northern Route Export Pipeline and Northern Early Oil Pipeline) is a 1,330-kilometre (830 mi) long oil pipeline, which runs from the Sangachal Terminal near Baku to the Novorossiysk terminal at the Black Sea coast in Russia. The Azerbaijani section of the pipeline is operated by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and the Russian section is operated by Transneft.

At present, the tariff for pumping of one tonne of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline is 15.67 US dollars. The pipeline’s capacity is 5 million tonnes per year with a possible increase up to 18 million tonnes.