off-the-wire

UPDATE 1-Japan's Inpex to send test batch of Kashagan crude via BTC pipeline

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
(Adds details, context) ASTANA, March 10 (Reuters) - Japan's Inpex will send a test batch of 7,000 tonnes of Kashagan crude from Kazakhstan via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline this month, pipeline operator KazTransOil said on Friday.


Kashagan crude is usually shipped via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) which crosses Russia, but companies have started testing other routes after several interruptions to the CPC last year amid Russia's standoff with the West over Ukraine. KazTransOil head of transportation, Abai Beisembayev, told investors in a conference call Inpex's crude was already being moved to the port of Aktau by railroad.


The port also expects to ship 1.5 million tonnes of crude to Baku this year from another giant Kazakh oilfield, Tengiz, which also used to go exclusively via the CPC pipeline.


Beisembayev said the start of those shipments has been delayed by the devastating earthquake in Turkey.
(Reporting by Tamara Vaal; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Jason Neely and Tom Hogue)

Messaging: olzhas.auyezov.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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