The Trans-Caspian Oil Transport System is a proposed project
[
] to transport oil through the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
from
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
i Caspian oilfields to
Baku
Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
in
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
for the further transportation to the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
or
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
coast. The main options under consideration are an offshore
oil pipeline
A pipeline is a system of pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries around the world. The Un ...
from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan, and construction of
oil terminal
An oil terminal (also called a tank farm, tankfarm, oil installation or oil depot) is an industrial facility for the storage of oil, petroleum and petrochemical products, and from which these Petroleum product, products are transported to end u ...
s and
oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk cargo, bulk transport of petroleum, oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quant ...
s fleet.
[
][
][
][ A strong push for the project][
] has been from the partners of the Kashagan oilfield project and in particular Total who has a share in both the field and the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. They have estimated that such a project would cost roughly US$4 billion. The project also faces opposition from Iran and Russia, both alternative avenues for Kazakhstan's oil and gas who would likely object to competing pipelines being built.[
]
History
In 2005, the Government of Kazakhstan
The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan (, ''Qazaqstan Respublikasynyñ Ükımetı'') is the collegial body that exercises Executive branch, executive power in the Kazakhstan, Republic of Kazakhstan; The government heads the system of execu ...
adopted plans for creation of a trans-Caspian westbound route for oil export.[ On 19 June 2006, President of Kazakhstan ]Nursultan Nazarbayev
Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev (born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakhstani politician who served as the first president of Kazakhstan from 1991 to 2019. He also held the special title of Elbasy from 2010 to 2022 and chairman of the Security Council of ...
and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Heydar Oghlu Aliyev (born 24 December 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician who has been the fourth president of Azerbaijan since 2003. He is also the leader of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2005.
The son and second child of former Aze ...
signed a framework agreement on the trans-Caspian oil transport system.[
] On 24 January 2007, partners in Tengiz Chevroil (developer of Tengiz field) and KCO ( Kashagan field developer) signed a memorandum of understanding to create a trans-Caspian oil transport system.[
] On 2 October 2009, the national oil company of Kazakhstan Kazmunaygas and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic signed a memorandum of understanding to expand the Caspian Oil Transport System to include Azeri infrastructure and onshore pipelines from Baku to Kulevi oil terminal in Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
.[
][
]
On 6 October 2009, an agreement on the oil pipeline from Kashagan to Baku was signed by consortium of French companies during the French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa ( ; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information ...
's visit to Kazakhstan.[
]
Oil pipeline
A long oil pipeline will run from Kashagan field or Kuryk to Baku.[
] Work for the pipeline is still in the feasibility stage according to an official from the oil company Total.
Shuttle tankers system
The shuttle tankers system envisages a usage of oil tankers to transport oil from Kuryk terminal in Kazakhstan to Sangachal Terminal in Azerbaijan.[ The capacity of this system would be in the initial stage, rising later up to .][
]
See also
*
* Kulevi oil terminal
* Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline
References
{{Reflist, 2
External links
The Globalization of Energy Resources: Tapping Caspian Oil and Gas
Lecture presented by Jonathan Elkind, Independent energy, environment and security consultant and former Director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian Affairs, National Security Council (1998–2001). October 19, 2006. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Oil pipelines in Kazakhstan
Oil pipelines in Azerbaijan
Caspian Sea
Proposed pipelines in Asia
Azerbaijan–Kazakhstan relations
Submarine pipelines
Proposed pipelines in Europe