The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline, operated by bp, has achieved a significant milestone by carrying 500 million tonnes of oil in total from the Sangachal terminal near Baku across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to Ceyhan.
The milestone was achieved on 12 December when the 500 millionth tonne of Caspian crude flowed through the pipeline, was loaded on the 4922nd tanker named Nordorse, which was a joint SOCAR lifting, and departed for Trieste (Italy).
This achievement is a significant contribution to the 15th anniversary of BTC since the pipeline became operational in 2006. Over the past 15 years BTC has been carrying hydrocarbons from the Caspian to its global customers safely, silently, reliably, unseen and with minimum risk to the environment.
Since the start of operations, BTC has demonstrated exceptional efficiency. To date BTC has had strong safety and operational performance. Its efficiency and operational reliability has increased from 75% at the start up to the current level of 99.9%.
Gary Jones, bp’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, said: “The 500 million tonnes of oil export is a remarkable milestone that winds up 15 years of steady and efficient operations of BTC. After so many years the pipeline continues to be the major artery of energy export in the region serving as a strategic direct link between the landlocked Caspian and the Mediterranean which has easy access to the markets all over the world.
“BTC was built as a huge engineering achievement and with its continuous safe, reliable and responsible operations it can be described as an extraordinary example of operational efficiency and world class delivery. We all should take pride in BTC’s success story including tremendous positive changes it has brought to the communities and the people across the three counties. This is truly a great facility in all respects and we are very proud of what it has achieved today. A big thank you to all people running this world class facility safely and silently day and night across the three countries. I would also like to thank our BTC shareholders for their support and great collaboration.”
The BTC Co. shareholders are: bp (30.1%); AzBTC (25.00%); MOL (8.90%); Equinor (8.71%); TPAO (6.53%); Eni (5.00%); Total (5.00%), ITOCHU (3.40%); INPEX (2.50%), ExxonMobil (2.50%) and ONGC (BTC) Limited (2.36%).
