The Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline that carries Azerbaijani crude oil to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey will resume shipments of 1 million barrels per day by the end of the year, Azerbaijan's energy minister Natiq Aliyev said at an energy summit, which took place in Baku this week.
The pipeline, which is currently shipping 850,000 barrels per day, restarted shipments in September after shutting down for a brief period of planned maintenance.
Before the shutdown, the pipeline was running at reduced capacity because of a partial shutdown of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields in the Caspian Sea after a gas leak near one platform.
The Central Azeri platform, one of four pumping oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields, will resume production in late December, Rovnaq Abdullayev, head of Azerbaijan's state oil company Socar, said at the Baku-summit.
U.K. oil major BP PLC (BP) is leading the group producing oil at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields and is a major shareholder in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Socar's Abdullayev also said production cuts at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields had forced the company to lower its forecast for Azerbaijan's 2008 crude output by 7 million tons to 45 million tons.
Energy minister Natiq Aliyev also said Azerbeijan aims to produce 208.2 million tons, or 1.05 million barrels per day, from 2009 to 2012.