BP says on track to transfer BTC operatorship to SOCAR from July 1

BP is on track to transfer operatorship of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline to SOCAR from July 1 as part of a contractual obligation, BP’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Giovanni Cristofoli said.

“We are making good progress on meeting the contractual obligation on July 1 and we are on track to do that,” Cristofoli said.

“I want to stress that this is a contractual obligation. This is not BP divesting. It is not. It is about complying with a contractual obligation,” he added.

Cristofoli said BP welcomed SOCAR’s upcoming role as operator.

“We’re really excited to see SOCAR as the operator. We have been working on a very thorough MOU. SOCAR has the expertise and the capability to run the pipeline very well,” he said.

N.Tebrizli