BTC
BTC Co today announced that, effective July 1, 2026, the operatorship of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline will be transferred from BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Limited (bp) to SOCAR Midstream Operations LLC (SMO), a subsidiary of SOCAR. The transfer of operatorship covers all three sections of the BTC pipeline - Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye.
In addition, the management of all activities related to the BTC pipeline, as well as the operatorship of joint activities currently carried out by bp in relation to both the BTC pipeline and the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), will also be transferred to SMO.
The transfer of management rights is being carried out on the basis of the relevant agreements underpinning the BTC project and adopted as part of the final preparatory decision. The transfer covers all individual BTC facilities and activities in all three countries, with the exception of facilities located in the Sangachal Terminal area, as well as joint activities related to BTC/SCP.
The operator of the Sangachal Terminal remains unchanged - BP will continue to operate this facility. The shareholding structure of BTC Co. also remains unchanged. The distribution of shares is as follows: SOCAR - 32.97%; BP - 30.10%; MOL Group (Hungary) - 8.90%; TPAO (Türkiye) - 6.53%; Eni (Italy) - 5.00%; TotalEnergies (France) - 5.00%; ITOCHU (Japan) - 3.40%; ONGC Videsh (India) - 3.10%; ExxonMobil (United States) - 2.50%; INPEX (Japan) - 2.50%.
Previously, in accordance with the relevant agreements, as of June 8, 2026, the facilities of the Western Export Pipeline (WEP) located in Azerbaijan and Georgia were transferred to organizations acting on behalf of the governments of Azerbaijan (SMO) and Georgia (Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation - GOGC), respectively. SOCAR Midstream Gas Operations LLC (SOCAR MGO) has been the commercial operator of the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) since 2015 and the technical operator since 2021. During this period, the management of all activities related to BTC and SCP was carried out through close cooperation between SOCAR and bp.
The 1,768-km BTC pipeline was built to safely and responsibly export crude oil from the Caspian region to the Mediterranean Sea and was commissioned on July 13, 2006. The BTC pipeline has been in operation for 20 years and generates significant revenues for the transit countries, contributing to the strengthening of economic and political ties between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye, and Western countries. A priori, BTC was designed to export ACG oil, but with the prospect of expanding and connecting new exporters, as the natural decline in ACG production frees up additional transit capacity on the BTC pipeline. Thus, in the first quarter of this year, 29 million barrels of oil were produced from ACG, which is 1 million barrels less than in the same period of 2025. At the same time, 1 billion cubic meters of associated gas from ACG was supplied to SOCAR’s Azerigas system, which is 0.1 billion cubic meters more than in January–March 2025.
The current capacity of the BTC pipeline is 1 million barrels per day. The pipeline uses pipes with diameters of 46/42/34 inches. The pipeline has eight pumping stations and 98 valve stations located across the three transit countries.
The pipeline rises to an elevation of 2,830 meters before descending back to sea level at Ceyhan, crossing several mountain ranges, 3,000 roads, railways, underground and above-ground communication lines, as well as more than 1,500 bodies of water, including the crossing of the Ceyhan River, which is up to 500 meters wide.
Considered one of the largest and most complex engineering achievements of its time in the world, the BTC project took four years - it was approved in July 2002 and completed in May 2006. At the peak of the project, 22,000 people were employed, nearly 80% of whom were local workers; more than 110 million man-hours were spent, and 220,000 pipe sections were welded.
On June 4, 2006, BTC crude oil was loaded onto the first tanker at the Ceyhan Terminal. The first volumes of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli crude oil, amounting to approximately 600,000 barrels, were loaded onto the British Hawthorn tanker and shipped from the Ceyhan Terminal.
To date, a total of more than 4.7 billion barrels (approximately 630 million tonnes) of crude oil have been transported through the BTC pipeline, loaded onto 6,271 tankers, and shipped to global markets.
Currently, the BTC pipeline primarily transports ACG crude oil and Shah Deniz field condensate from Azerbaijan. In addition, the BTC pipeline also transports other volumes of Caspian oil and condensate from other regions, including Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, as well as other volumes produced by SOCAR in Azerbaijan.
The share of transit oil from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan accounts for approximately 15–18% of the total volume transported through the BTC pipeline. According to the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, during the first months of this year, the volume of crude oil transshipped from these two countries amounted to hundreds of thousands of tonnes.
In addition, the management of all activities related to the BTC pipeline, as well as the operatorship of the joint activities currently carried out by bp in relation to both the BTC pipeline and the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), will also be transferred to SMO.
Gas production
bp, as the operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field development project, also announced on July 1, on behalf of the ACG project partners — SOCAR, MOL, INPEX, ExxonMobil, TPAO, and ONGC Videsh — the start of production of free natural gas at the ACG field, located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Thus, ACG, one of the world’s largest oil fields, has commenced its first commercial gas production.
The first STG well, drilled from the existing West Chirag platform, represents an important first step toward unlocking the potential of ACG’s significant undeveloped natural gas resources. In addition to initiating production, this well provides important reservoir and gas-flow data that will help assess the gas reserves for future full-scale development plans.
The free natural gas (FNG) reserves at the ACG field are considered to be substantial — approximately 4 trillion cubic feet (about 113 billion cubic meters) of recoverable reserves, with the potential to increase to 6 trillion cubic feet and beyond. Thus, ACG is evolving into a fully integrated oil and gas field with strong potential for maintaining a stable level of oil production while simultaneously increasing gas production.
At the same time, the current growth rate of free gas production at ACG is nearly twice as high as the growth rate at the giant Shah Deniz field, which has 1 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas reserves.