Azerbaijan-based State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) said it would consider Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline as an alternative to transport its oil, if talks with Russian counterpart fails to continue to deliver oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.
Early in May, Russia revoked the 17 year old intergovernmental agreement to transport 5 million tons (MT) a year of Azerbaijani oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline for $15.67 per ton of oil transit.
The intergovernmental agreement was withdrawn by the Russian government on the grounds that the contract is a considerable loss, reported azernews.az.
Azerbaijan is transporting about 2.5MT of oil through the pipeline on average and in 2010 the country transported 2.2MT oil through the line and 2MT each in 2011 and 2012.
SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev was quoted by the publication as saying that the company should consider other options and opportunities to transport oil.
"The economic efficiency of all possible options will be considered," Abdullayev added.
The final decision will be reached by the end of 2013, while the oil transportation through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline will be continued as per the existing agreement until 2014.
SOCAR senior official said that in case the final talks fail to continue transporting the Azerbaijani oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, it will be transited through the BTC pipeline.