Oil supplies via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline are carried out in full compliance with agreements between Russian and Azerbaijani parties, the company said.
In 2004 it plans to pump 2.5 million tons of crude oil via the route.
"Azerbaijan pays Russia $15.67 per each ton of oil exported via the pipeline," the press service said.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (Turkey) pipeline to be put into operation by the end of 2005, is viewed by the international consortium as an alternative to the Russian route for several parameters, such as a relatively cheap pumping of Caspian oil and environment friendliness (unlike the Russian route, oil will not be transported via the Turkish Black Sea straits of Bosphorus and Dardanelles, on the coast of which, besides the 15-million Istanbul, there are many historical monuments, tourist centers, resorts and the most of Turkey's population are concentrated). Recently Kazakhstan has been showing an increasing interest in joining the "Turkish" pipeline, which wants to deliver its oil from Mangyshlak fields to Baku first by tankers and later by laying pipelines via the Caspian Sea bottom. At the same time the authorities of Kazakhstan say that oil will be enough even for the Caspian pipeline consortium led by Russia, as the pipeline is led across its territory and ends in Novorossiisk.
