Azeri Baku-Ceyhan pipeline to pump more oil in 2008

BAKU, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan will pump 20 percent more oil through the BP-led (BP.L) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline in 2008 than this year, a BTC source told Reuters on Friday.

About 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil will pass next year through the pipeline, which takes Azeri oil to Turkey via Georgia, compared with 1 million bpd expected this year.

"The oil in 2008 will come from two Azeri projects and one from Kazakhstan," the BTC source said.

The pipeline, which opened in June 2006, could start pumping 1.6 million bpd within a few years, BP-Azerbaijan Vice-President Rashid Dzhevanshir told reporters on Friday.

Between 1 million and 1.1 million bpd next year will come from Azerbaijan's Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli group of fields in the Caspian Sea, which has reserves of 5.6 billion barrels of oil.

The small amount remaining will come from either Azerbaijan's Shakh-Deniz gas fields, in the form of condensate, and Kazakhstan's TengizChevroil, owned by U.S. oil major Chevron (CVX.N).

The BTC is seen by BP as an alternative to the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline that takes Azeri oil to Russia, from where it is sold on to Europe.

In April, BP stopped sending oil through the pipeline, and next year's output is forecast to fall considerably. For the full story click on [ID:nL20501124].