BTC pipeline hits 1M barrels per day

ANKARA, Turkey, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Turkey’s energy minister marked the 1 million barrel-per-day mark in the BTC pipeline by announcing a new natural gas and oil strategy with Azerbaijan.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline sends oil from an Azeri field in the Caspian Sea to the Ceyhan port on the Mediterranean, passing through Georgia.

Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler announced the pipeline has reached 1 million barrels per day, and counting.

Guler said he wants to increase the flow after 2008, a plan Azeri officials back, The New Anatolian reports.

“Azerbaijan wants to raise this figure as well,” Guler told a news conference after a meeting with Azeri Industry and Energy Minister Natiq Aliyev. “There are the necessary technical conditions both in the physical and chemical term in order to actualize that.”

He said the Turkish-Azeri talks included the future of the Azerbaijan-Turkey Natural Gas Pipeline, including stepping up the completion of the second phase of the Shah Sea project.

Aliyev said he wanted Turkey’s support in sending Azeri natural gas to Europe through Turkey.