The Chevron Corp. (CVX) joint venture TengizChevrOil operating the giant Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan has agreed with Azerbaijan's state oil company Socar to ship oil by rail through Azerbaijan and Georgia, a source at Socar said.
Shipments of up to 2 million metric tons a year should start by the end of October or beginning of November, the source said, adding that volumes may be increased to 5 million tons a year.
Most of the oil produced at the Tengiz field, in which Chevron is the largest investor, is currently shipped through a pipeline known as the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which runs along the northern Caspian coastline to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk.
Socar said talks on transporting oil from Tengiz through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline continues, but no decision has been made.