The Times of Central Asia, an outlet covering Central Asia, reports that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are discussing expanding oil shipments across the Caspian Sea through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.
According to the outlet, KazMunayGas (KMG) board chairman Askhat Khassenov and SOCAR (State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic) president Rovshan Najaf discussed boosting oil transit through Azerbaijani territory at a meeting in Baku on November 3, 2026. SOCAR said the two sides are studying geological data on promising exploration areas in both countries and examining whether Kazakhstan’s “Satti” drilling rig could be used at Azerbaijan’s offshore fields.
The Times of Central Asia noted that oil volumes shipped from Aktau via the BTC pipeline rose 24% year-on-year to 1.16 million tons in the first nine months of 2026. Azerbaijani statistics, however, show total oil transported via BTC fell 8.3% to 18.86 million tons in the January-September period of 2026.
The meeting came after another setback for Kazakhstan’s oil exports routed through Russian territory, the outlet wrote. A drone strike on the Samara receiving and dispatch station on November 2, 2026, halted pumping along the Atyrau-Samara pipeline, though transmission resumed the following day. Infrastructure belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) has also come under attack previously; Kazakhstan exported 64.8 million tons of oil via the CPC and roughly 9.3 million tons via the Atyrau-Samara line in 2025.
Transit volumes and tariffs
Shipments of Kazakh oil along the Aktau-Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan route have been running since 2023. In 2024, KMG and SOCAR agreed to gradually raise annual transit volume to 2.2 million tons, while Kazakhstan’s target for 2026 stands at 1.7 million tons.
The Times of Central Asia reported that Daulet Arykbayev, director of the oil transport and refining department at Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry, told Platts on October 1, 2026, that Azerbaijan is ready to raise annual transit volume to 2.7 million tons, with the figure potentially reaching 7 million tons in the future. The BTC pipeline has daily capacity of 1.2 million barrels, but according to Platts’ October data, it currently carries only about 500,000-600,000 barrels per day.
KMG’s 2025 report mentioned negotiations with SOCAR over lower tariffs and an assessment of how Kazakh oil affects the quality of the Azeri Light blend. That year, shipments along the Aktau-Baku line were suspended from August to October due to technical constraints tied to oil contamination in the BTC system, cutting volume transported via the trans-Caspian route to 1.3 million tons, down 7% from 2024.
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