Georgian port of Batumi cuts oil exports in May 2007

In May 2007, oil terminal of the port of Batumi (Georgia) decreased transshipment of crude oil and oil products from Caspian fields to 717,500 tons from 1.403 million tons in May 2006, press-uz.info reports according to Reuters referring to a source at the terminal.

Today major supplier of oil to Batumi is ExxonMobil. Within five years it intends to transport 10 million tons of oil from Azerbaijan by Georgian railway. In 2006, overall shipments from Batumi rose to 11.7 million tonnes from 9.7 million tonnes in 2005. The terminal owners attribute the decrease to the fact that some volumes were re-routed to the new Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

In April 2007, crude and refined products shipments from the port of Batumi fell to 706,700 tons from 1.059 million tons in April 2006. The owners forecast further decrease to 8.5 million tons in 2007. Batumi gets most of its volumes from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

The owners of Batumi Oil Terminal are Kazakhstan-based state company KazMunayGas, France-based bank BNP Paribas and a number of other companies. In summer 2006 the terminal owners received the port of Batumi for management within 49 having paid $92 million within the framework of an international tender.