Russia exports about 40% of its energy carriers through Ukraine. Ilham Shaban, Head of the Center for Oil Research, noted that modern oil and gas infrastructure in Azerbaijan would allow Russia to diversify energy exports in the light of the Ukraine crisis. He clarified that the Baku-Novorossiysk Pipeline had a capacity of over 5 million tons of oil that could be sent to the Sangachal Terminal and then along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline to the Western markets.
Shaban noted that exports through the latter would not affect quality of the Azeri Light oil. Rosneft may pump oil through the Tikhoretskaya-Tuapse line with a sulfur percentage below 1.5%. So Russian oil will have little affect on the 37 million tons of oil pumped through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan. Rosneft may reduce sulfur concentration to 1%.
Russia may transport 20 million tons of oil through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan every year. The pipeline has a maximum capacity of 60 million tons a year. Shaban predicts that the pipeline will be used to pump up to 40 million tons of oil this year due to additional 4 million tons of Kyrgyz oil.
