Baku–Supsa Pipeline
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Baku–Supsa Pipeline (also known as the Western Route Export Pipeline and Western Early Oil Pipeline) is an long oil pipeline, which runs from the
Sangachal Terminal The Sangachal Terminal is an industrial complex consisting of a natural gas processing plant and oil production plant, located on the coast of the Caspian Sea south of Baku, Azerbaijan. History Construction of the terminal began in 1996 with t ...
near
Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
to the
Supsa Supsa ( ka, სუფსა) is a Black Sea port village in western Georgia (country), Georgia with the population of 273 (2014). It is located in the Lanchkhuti Municipality, on the river Supsa (river), Supsa. It is the terminus of the Baku-S ...
terminal in
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
. It transports oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field. The pipeline is operated by BP.


History

The preparations for the pipeline's construction started in 1994. On 8 March 1996, President of Azerbaijan
Heydar Aliyev Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev ( az, Һејдәр Әлирза оғлу Әлијев, italic=no, Heydər Əlirza oğlu Əliyev, ; , ; 10 May 1923 – 12 December 2003) was a Soviet and Azerbaijani politician who served as the third president of Aze ...
and President of Georgia
Eduard Shevardnadze Eduard Ambrosis dze Shevardnadze ( ka, ედუარდ ამბროსის ძე შევარდნაძე}, romanized: ; 25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014) was a Soviet and Georgian politician and diplomat who governed Georgia for ...
agreed on the establishment of Baku–Supsa pipeline. The trilateral contract was signed between
Azerbaijan International Operating Company Azerbaijan International Operating Company is a consortium formed to implement the terms of the “Agreement on the Joint Development and Production Sharing for the Azeri and Chirag Fields and the Deep Water Portion of the Gunashli Field in the Az ...
, SOCAR and the Government of Georgia. At the same year the lead contract of the project was awarded to
Kværner Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. In 2004, it was amalgamated to the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 2008 ...
. The pipeline was completed in 1998. On 17 April 1999, the inauguration ceremony of the Supsa Oil Terminal took place. The total costs of the construction of the pipeline and terminal were US$556 million. The oil transportation by the pipeline was stopped on 21 October 2006 after abnormalities were revealed during the inspections on the pipeline. The large scale repair and replacement included replacement and re-routing of pipeline sections near
Zestaponi Zestafoni or Zestaponi ( ka, ზესტაფონი, tr, ) is the administrative center of Zestafoni District in Western Georgia. Zestafoni is the center of an ancient, historical part of Georgia – Margveti, which is a part of Imereti ...
in Georgia and Kura River crossing in Azerbaijan. Also several defects of the Soviet times sections were repaired. In total, the repair works cost US$53 million. The oil shipment restarted in June 2008. After a major explosion and fire, which closed the
Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is a long crude oil pipeline from the Azeri–Chirag–Gunashli oil field in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It connects Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and Ceyhan, a port on the south-easter ...
on 6 August 2008, the Baku–Supsa Pipeline was used to re-route Azeri oil deliveries. On 12 August 2008, BP closed the pipeline temporarily for safety reasons because of the South Ossetia conflict. On August 10th and 12th 2008, the Russian aviation had bombed the pipeline. In Summer of 2012 pipeline was down a month for a maintenance. In July 2015 Russian troops demarcating the de facto border of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia, pushed forward the border line near the village of Orchosani and thereby taking control over a short length of the pipeline. Analysts suggest that this was a Russian reaction to dissuade Georgia from making further moves towards joining NATO. While conceding that the pipeline might need to be diverted in the future, a Vice President of SOCAR reportedly denied any short term need for such concern.APA reported: "“Even the routes of Baku-Supsa pipeline are not changed, this will not cause any problem for the pipeline”, SOCAR vice-president on investments and marketing Elshan Nasirov said."
/ref> In June 2022, BP rerouted oil from the pipeline to the much bigger Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline due to security concerns.


Technical features

Essentially, the Baku–Supsa pipeline is a refurbished Soviet era pipeline with several newly built sections. It has six pumping stations and two pressure reduction stations in western Georgia. The four storage tanks at the Supsa terminal have a total capacity of 160,000 cubic metres. The capacity of the pipeline is 7.2 million tons a year () with proposed upgrades to between . From 1999 to 2016, 76.3 million tons of oil were transported through the pipeline. In 2021, it carried 4.2 million tons. The cost of transporting one ton of oil through the pipeline is $3.14 (2016), out of which Georgia gets a $1.2 share and Azerbaijan gets the rest.


See also

*
Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is a long crude oil pipeline from the Azeri–Chirag–Gunashli oil field in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It connects Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and Ceyhan, a port on the south-easter ...
*
Baku–Novorossiysk Pipeline The Baku–Novorossiysk pipeline (also known as the Northern Route Export Pipeline and Northern Early Oil Pipeline) is an long oil pipeline, which runs from the Sangachal Terminal near Baku to the Novorossiysk terminal at the Black Sea coast ...
*
Energy in Georgia (country) Georgia had a total primary energy supply (TPES) of 4.793 Mtoe in 2016. Electricity consumption was 11.5 TWh in 2016. Electricity production was 11.6 TWh, of which 81% from hydroelectricity and 19% from natural gas. Georgia works in close collabo ...


References


External links


Western Route Export Pipeline (BP website)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baku-Supsa Pipeline Energy infrastructure completed in 1999 Oil pipelines in Azerbaijan Oil pipelines in Georgia (country) Caspian Sea BP buildings and structures Azerbaijan–Georgia (country) relations Georgia (country)–Turkey relations Azerbaijan–Turkey relations Black Sea energy 1999 establishments in Azerbaijan