Azerbaijan ships 733,664 t of oil via Russia in H1 2017
BAKU (Reuters) — Azerbaijan's oil shipments via Russia jumped to 733,664 t in the first half of the year from 479,730 t in the same period last year, state oil company SOCAR said on Tuesday.
The increase was partly because SOCAR shipped no oil via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline in January and February last year, before resuming exports the following month after signing an agreement with Russian pipeline monopoly AK Transneft.
SOCAR aims to increase its shipments via Russia to 1.5 MMt this year. Last year it shipped 1.2 MMt, down 4.8% from 2015.
Azerbaijan sends only a small portion of its oil exports via Russia, using routes through Georgia and Turkey for the bulk of its crude shipments.
SOCAR's crude has a lower sulfur content than Russia's Urals blend. The company receives crude from Transneft to fill its loading slots at the Novorossiisk oil terminal.
Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; writing by Margarita Antidze; editing by Jason Neely
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