Volumes of Azeri crude oil pumped from Azerbaijan to Turkey through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, or BTC, will be much lower in January, traders of Mediterranean crude said Monday.
Traders who had seen the loading program said the total volume in January would be just over 560,000 barrels of crude oil a day compared to between 760,000-780,000 barrels a day flow in December.
"We understand that some volume was pushed out in December that should have been in November, and so December (export volume) was higher than it really should have been," said a Europe-based trader.
BP PLC (BP), a major shareholder in the BTC pipeline, wasn't immediately available to comment. The company previously has declined to comment on oil export plans.
In September, around 60% of the 850,000 barrel-a-day crude oil flow through the BTC was cut following the shutdown of two platforms on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field in the Caspian Sea after a gas leak.