BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 17. Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR and Kazakhstan's KazMunayGas (KMG) have successfully continued the transit of Kazakh crude through Azerbaijan, bringing total volumes transported to 4 million tons, TurkicWorld reports via SOCAR.
The 427th shipment of Kazakh oil departed from Aktau port on 12 March aboard the President Heydar Aliyev tanker and arrived at Azertrans’ Sangachal Terminal the following day. Of the total volume moved to date, 3.8 million tons originated from the Tengiz field, with a further 200,000 tons from the Kashagan field.
The first Tengiz shipment reached Baku on 23 March 2023, while the first cargo of Kashagan crude arrived on 27 January 2025. Oil delivered to Sangachal is subsequently transported via the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to the Ceyhan terminal in Türkiye and exported to global markets. SOCAR is represented in the project by its subsidiary SOCAR Midstream Operations LLC.
The transit arrangement traces back to a November 2022 Framework Agreement between SOCAR and KMG, which provided for the annual transport of 1.5 million tons of Tengiz crude via BTC. In March 2024, the parties signed a Strategic Cooperation Memorandum to increase annual volumes and facilitate the purchase and sale of Kazakh crude. On 15 January 2025, a further framework was agreed to allow the transit of an additional 240,000 tons of Kashagan oil annually alongside existing Tengiz shipments.
The BTC pipeline, which also carries Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil and Shah Deniz condensate, as well as crude from other sources, has a current throughput of 1.2 million barrels per day, equivalent to 50 million tons per year. Since its commissioning in June 2006, the 1,768 km pipeline has transported some 619 million tons of crude — over 4.7 billion barrels — and loaded 6,145 tankers at Ceyhan for delivery to international markets.
