The total length of the main pipeline is 4.6 thousand km in Azerbaijan. The first oil pipeline was formed in Absheron district in connection with oil production in the republic. The total length of the oil pipeline is more than 1500 km. 80% of the oil pipeline is located in the territory of the Absheron economic region. Important oil pipelines in the republic operate with following dimensions: Shirvan (former Ali-Bayramly)-Baku (130 km), Shirvan (former Ali-Bayramly)-Dashgil (40 km), Dubandi-Boyukshor (40 km), Dubandi-Keshla (40 km), Dubandi-Surakhani- Boyukshor (40 km), Dashgil-Sangachal-Keshla (90 km), Buzovna-Sabunchu (20 km), Binagadi-Keshla (8 km). The oil pipeline with 800 km length began to operate between Baku and Batumi at the beginning of XX century.
Pipelines
The first pipeline was constructed in 1878 by Baku Oil Refinery from Balakhani Mines. Baku – Batumi oil pipeline was put into operation in the beginning of the XX century. Oil and gas fields’ exploitation in Absheron, Caspian Sea results with construction of new pipelines. Alibayramly – Baku, Neftdashlari – Baku, Siyazan – Baku are the main oil pipelines throughout the country.This gas is transported through Garadagh – Agstafa, Garadagh – Baku, Siyazan – Baku, Neftdashlari – Baku, Zira – Baku gas pipelines.
The main options for the pipeline route:
Baku – Grozny–Novorossiysk (the northern route)
Baku – Tbilisi – Supsa (the western route)
Baku – Tbilisi – Ceyhan main oil pipeline named after Heydar Aliyev
Baku–Tbilisi–Erzurum gas Pipeline (Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline)
Baku-Grozny-Tikhoretsk-Novorossiysk
The first oil pipeline is the Northern route. The agreement was signed on transportation of Azerbaijani oil to Novorossiysk port of The Black Sea passing through RF on February 18, 1996 in Moscow. The total length of the Baku-Grozny-Tikhoretsk-Novorossiysk (BGTN) oil pipeline is 1347 km, including 231 km in Azerbaijan. The transportation of Azerbaijani oil through the northern route started on October 25, 1997. A trilateral agreement signed among AIOC, SOCAR and Transneft includes all legal and technical issues of transportation of oil to Novorossiysk port. Objectifying its position in this agreement Russia accepted in the second paragraph that it was not the owner of the Azerbaijani oil and the ownership of the Azerbaijani oil belongs to this oil producer. It is to be appreciated as a significant achievement of “new oil strategy” of Azerbaijan. In accordance with the initial terms of this agreement, Azerbaijani oil entered the world market through the northern pipeline on October 25, 1997. It was intended to transport 2.5 thousand tons of crude oil per day through Dubandi-Boyukshor-Siyazan-Shirvanovka pipeline. 120 thousand tons of oil had been exported through the northern route in the republic by the end of 1997.
The second pipeline is the Western route. Total length of the pipeline is 920 km where 480 km passes through Azerbaijan.This line was put into operation on April 17, 1999. 15 million tons of oil is exported to Western countries per year through the pipeline called Baku-Supsa.
The president of Azerbaijan H. Aliyev and the president of Georgia E. Shevardnadze agreed to construct the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline in Tbilisi on March 8, 1996. Azerbaijan intended to transport primary Azeri oil extracted from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields through Baku-Supsa oil pipeline in trilateral contracts signed among AIOC, SOCAR and the Georgian Government.
Export of primary Azeri oil started on April 17, 1999 through Baku-Supsa oil pipeline. The biggest advantage of this route is to bring clean Azerbaijani oil to the world market under brand “Azeri Light”. In addition, the other advantage of the pipeline is cheaper transportation of oil to Supsa in comparison with Novorossiysk. The transportation of a tone oil to Novorossiysk costs 15,67, but to Supsa 13,14 US dollars.
The length of the Baku-Supsa pipeline, which runs along the western direction, is 837 km, the diameter is 530 mm. 48.7 mln. tons of oil was transported through both of the pipelines and was brought to the world market from 1999 up to the beginning of 2005.
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is transportation line of Azerbaijani oil from the Caspian Sea to Ceyhan port of Turkey, then to European markets through the Mediterranean Sea. Its length is 1768 km. It passes through Azerbaijan (443 km), Georgia (249 km), and Turkey (1076 km). Exploitation of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline created the basis for extraction of Azerbaijani oil to the world market from 2006. 50 million tons of oil is brought to the world market per year through this pipeline.
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline
According to the Main Export Pipeline project, Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline is estimated from $2.5 billion to $3.1 billion dollars. Its construction can be completed in 2 years. The gas pipeline will run from Turkmenistan up to the bottom of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, then to Georgia through the land, then to Erzurum (Turkey). Then gas will be exported from Turkey to Europe. The length of Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline will be 970 km, the gas transmission capacity will be from 10 billion cubic meters to 30 billion cubic meters (in the first stage) per year.
Baku-Supsa oil pipeline
Baku-Supsa oil pipeline (Western Route Export Pipeline) – carries out the transportation of oil produced in Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian to the world market passing through Georgia. Crude oil is exported to the European markets by loading tankers at the Supsa terminal in Georgia passing through the Bosporus. WEPL with the length of 833 km runs to the Supsa terminal located on the Georgian coast starting from Sangachal Terminal. The line with a diameter of 530 mm was built in 1997-1998. Filling the pipes of this line started from December 1998 to March 1999. Oil was loaded on ships in Supsa for the first time on April 8, 1999. WREP facilities include 6 pump stations (3 of them are in Azerbaijan, 3 of them are in Georgia), 2 pressure reduction stations (the both of them are in Georgia), one scraper-launching station. WREP has 4 reservoirs in Supsa. The total volume of reservoirs is 1 million barrels. The ship loading capacity of the pipeline is from 600,000 barrels to one million.
Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline
The Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline – (TANAP) will transport natural gas from the eastern border of Turkey to the western, will provide stable transit in the country. The project will coordinate the expanded South Caucasus pipeline starting from Azerbaijan to several pipelines in the European Union. The cost of the project, which will be implemented within 5 years is 7 billion US dollars. The first stage of the project to be realized in four stages will be completed in 2018. Releasing capacity of the pipeline will be increased to 16 billion cubic meters in 2020, 23 billion cubic meters in 2023, 31 billion cubic meters in 2026. In the first period, 16 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas will be transported through the TANAP pipeline. 10 billion cubic meters of it will be sold to Europe, 6 billion cubic meters to Turkey. Gas intended for Europe will be handed over in the Turkey-Bulgaria or Turkey-Greece border.
Trans-Caspian gas pipeline
The Trans-Caspian gas pipeline – the idea came up with plans of Turkey to buy gas from Turkmenistan in 1997. Afterward, a commercial agreement on purchasing and selling gas was signed between Turkmenistan and Turkey. According to the agreement, Turkey undertakes to purchase 30 billion cubic meters of gas through the Trans-Caspian pipeline starting from the year 2000.
Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP)
Trans Adriatic Pipeline project (TAP) consists of designing, construction, and exploitation of the natural gas pipeline in Greece beginning from the Greek-Turkish border which joins to the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), passing through Greece, Albania, and the Adriatic Sea. It ends in Italy connecting to “Snam Rete Gas” (SRG) network. The TAP project was chosen as the shortest and direct way to export natural gas from Azerbaijan to European markets. The Intergovernmental Agreement was signed between Albania, Italy, and Greece on TAP project in February 2013.
Source from Wikipedia