Turkey ‘earns $12 billion’ from Baku pipeline

ADANA - Anadolu Agency

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız visits Turkey’s state-owned pipeline company BOTAŞ’s regional directorate in southern province of Adana. AA Photo

The Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has earned $12 billion from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude oil pipeline since 2005, when oil from Baku was first pumped, Turkish Minister of Energy Taner Yıldız has said.

During his speech in the southern province of Adana, Yıldız underlined the importance of the BTC pipeline for the region and trade volume created for the country.

He stated the TPAO has 6.5 percent of the shares in the BTC crude oil pipeline. British Petroleum (BP) and State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) hold the majority of the shares in the BTC pipeline, with 30 percent and 20 percent respectively.

The pipeline has transported more than 1.8 billion barrels of crude oil to date.

Nearly 3 percent of the world’s oil trade is flowing along the BTC and Kirkuk-Yumurtalık crude oil pipelines through Turkey. The BTC pipeline has been transporting Azeri oil from the Caspian Sea to the Ceyhan Port of Turkey through the Georgian capital of Tblisi. The oil is then exported to European markets via the Mediterranean Sea.