Baku Batumi Pipeline

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Baku Batumi Pipeline is a crude oil and kerosene pipeline in Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Location

The Baku Batumi Pipeline is a crude oil and kerosene pipeline in Azerbaijan and Georgia.

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Project Details

• Operator: Gazprom
• Current capacity:
• Length: 834 km / 518 mi
• Status: Operating
• Start Year: 1930
• Retired Year: 1942

Background

The Baku Batumi Pipeline is the name given to several pipelines and pipeline projects that transport kerosene and crude oil from the Caspian region to the Georgian Batumi oil terminal at the Black Sea. When first constructed in 1906, it was the world's longest kerosene pipeline. The project of new pipelines was proposed in 1924. In 1925, the Soviet Union held negotiations with French companies to set up a joint venture to construct and operate the Baku Batumi crude oil pipeline. The intention was to use the pipeline for oil export to Europe, mainly to France. However, the negotiations failed as did negotiations with United States companies. In 1927, the construction of the pipeline was awarded to Azneft, an Azerbaijani oil company. The project designer and construction manager was A.V. Bulgakov.

The construction started in May 1928 and the pipeline was opened on 30 April 1930. It supplied mainly Batum's refinery.

The crude oil pipeline had a diameter of 10 inches (250 mm) and the length was 834 kilometres (518 mi). The pipeline had 13 pumping stations each equipped with three diesel pumps of 360 hp. The pipeline used over 60,000 German-manufactured pipes weighing a total of over 54,000 tons. Diesels for the pipeline were purchased from MAN AG, pumps from Crossley and generators from Theodor Bergmann. Construction work was done on three sections simultaneously. The highest point was at the 823 metres (2,700 ft) above of sea level. The first 21 kilometres (13 mi) long section Mikhailovo (Khashuri) Batumi was completed on 13 February 1929, the second 363 kilometres (226 mi) long section Mingechaur Mikhailovo (Khashuri) was completed on 15 December 1929, and the third 248 kilometres (154 mi) long section Baku Mingechaur was completed on 13 February 1930. The pipeline cost 49 million rubles.

The operation of the oil pipeline showed that it was incapable of transporting oil in planned amount and the capacity needed to increase by 750,000 tons. In August 1942, the pipeline was dismantled due to threat of penetration from German troops and its pipes were used for the construction of the Astrakhan-Saratov pipeline. In 1990s, some parts of the pipeline were used for the construction of the Baku Supsa Pipeline.

There have been several proposals for a new Baku Batumi Pipeline. In 1994-1998, the Baku Supsa Pipeline, which partly uses old Baku Batum pipeline route, was constructed. On 2 March 1998, Chevron Corporation agreed to reconstruct the existing Khashuri Batumi Pipeline and construct the Dubandi (Baku) Khashuri pipeline. However, in May 2001 Chevron canceled this project and started to ship its oil from Tengiz Field through the CPC Pipeline.

Kazakhstan's national oil company KazMunayGas, owner of the Batumi Oil Terminal, has shown interest to build a new Baku Batumi Pipeline, which together with proposed Trans-Caspian and Batumi Constanţa connections, would supply KazMunayGas oil refineries in Romania (Rompetrol) and a planned refinery in Batumi.

Articles and resources

External articles

Wikipedia also has an article on the Baku Batumi Pipeline ([1]). This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License].