Oil from Kashagan may be transported from Azerbaijan in 2013

Transport of 5-7 million tons of oil from the Kazakh field of Kashagan may be organized through Azerbaijan in 2013, Azerbaijani Minister for Industry and Energy Natig Aliyev said, Trend reports.

$33 billion of investments have been spent on development of the Kashagan field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea. It will yield 50 million tons of oil annually in the first stage and 75 million in the second stage in 2018-2019. Kashagan holds at least 10 billion tons of oil and over 1 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves.

Oil transport will be realized within the framework of the Trans-Caspian oil transport system as part of the Kazakh Caspian system of oil transportation. The system transports oil from Kashagan and Tengiz, through the Caspian Sea via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline or other systems.

The system consists of the Yeskene-Kuryk pipeline and the Trans-Caspian systems.

The national oil companies of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, KazMunayGaz and SOCAR, signed a deal on formation of the Trans-Caspian system in Baku in late 2008.