The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline that takes Azerbaijani oil to Europe via Turkiye exported about 22 million tons of crude oil in the three quarters of 2022, bp Azerbaijan told Azernews.

The oil was loaded on 224 tankers exported from Turkiye’s Ceyhan terminal.

From January-September, about $74 million was spent on operating expenditures and about $17 million in capital expenditure on the BTC project.

Overall, BTC exported over 524 million tons of crude oil loaded on 5,163 tankers to the world markets since the pipeline became operational in June 2006 till the end of the third quarter of 2022.

On 23 March 2022, BTC reached a significant milestone by loading the 5,000th tanker of oil transported from the Sangachal terminal near Baku across Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Ceyhan in Turkiye.

The BTC pipeline currently carries mainly the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli crude oil and the Shah Deniz condensate from Azerbaijan. Other volumes of crude oil and condensate also continue to be transported via BTC.

The BTC pipeline is a transport line for Azerbaijani oil from the Caspian Sea to the port of Ceyhan in Turkiye, and then to European markets via the Mediterranean Sea. The official opening ceremony of the BTC oil pipeline took place in Turkiye in July 2006. The total length of the pipeline is 1,768 km, of which 443 km passes through the territory of Azerbaijan; 249 km via Georgia; 1,076 km via Turkiye. The projected capacity is 50 million tonnes of oil per year or one million barrels per day. Light oil produced at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field is transported via BTC, Azernews reports.