Shipments concerning oil and oil-related products in Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi, experienced a 24% decrease during the first four months of 2019, when compared to the same period in 2018, an official at a KazMunaiGas-operated terminal at the port said on Wednesday, May 1.
According to Reuters, shipments in Batumi have decreased because Azerbaijan tackles the port as it is being operated by a Kazakh company. Therefore, the former prefers shipping its products through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline or via its own terminal at the Georgian port of Kulevi.
Moreover, the official commented that there were no shipments of crude oil, naphtha, jet fuel or vacuum gasoil from Batumi in January-April.
In the meantime, a portion of crude oil was re-routed to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, whereas some fuel oil was transferred to the port of Taman in Russia and to Kulevi.
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Specifically, oil-related shipments from Batumi decreased to 318,110 tonnes in January to April, in comparison to the 415,613 tonnes in 2018.
In April the shipments were 105,160 tonnes on the contrary to 115,086 tonnes in 2018 and 87,005 tonnes in March 2018.
Also, crude and refined oil products from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are shipped out of Georgia’s Black Sea ports of Batumi, Supsa, Poti and the terminal at Kulevi.
Other products are being transferred through the Caspian Sea in small tankers, being unloaded in the Azeri port of Baku and then sent by rail to Georgian ports for export to the Mediterranean.
In 2018, shipments of oil and oil-related products from Batumi were 1.030 million tonnes, against 2.109 million in 2017.
