SOCAR Trading to continue pumping Turkmen oil to BTC in 2011

The pipeline of BTC Co., responsible for the work of
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, has extended the contract
terms on pumping oil by SOCAR Trading (a subsidiary of SOCAR – State
Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic) by a year.

A BTC Co. source told Turan that the contract signed in July last year
expired on December 31. According to the new contract, BTC Co. is
responsible for transporting oil provided by SOCAR Trading until the
end of 2011. The daily oil pumping of SOCAR Trading on BTC is 40,000
barrels.

SOCAR Trading purchases oil from foreign companies (Petronas and
Dragon Oil), extracted at Turkmen off-shore Celeken and Diyarbakir
(former Barinov) and on-shore Okarem fields. The chemical properties
of the oil are close to Azeri Ligth from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and
transported via BTC. Petronas and Dragon oil had been exporting oil
from Turkmenistan using a swap contact through Iran.

1.27 million tons of Turkmen oil were transported through the BTC in 2010.