Baku. Since 2002 Azerbaijan failed to honor its
commitments in the agreement between the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan
Republic on transit of Azerbaijani oil through Russia signed on January 18,
1996, reads statement of Transneft posted on the official web site of the
company.
"According to the agreement, the
annual volume of Azerbaijani oil transit should be at least 5 million tons, but
in practice the volume is much lower," the company said. The company reported that from 2002 till now
the volume of transit was higher than 4 million tons only in 2005 and 2006, in
2008 it was 1.39 million and in 2004 - up to 2.77 million tons. "In 2012 transit of Azerbaijani oil was
2 million tons. In 2013 the volume of Azerbaijani oil should be 1.8 million
tons of oil. During 4 months, 2013 570,500 tons of Azerbaijani oil was
transported via the Transneft's pipelines (reduction by 13% against the same
period in 2012). The fee of $15.67 per 1
ton of Azerbaijani oil transit was based on the volume of transportation of at
least 5 million tons of oil a year, therefore the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline
remains unprofitable for Transneft, because of the above-mentioned violations.
During 2012 Transneft received less $47 million of profit from transportation
of Azerbaijani oil, reads the statement of Transneft. Transneft stated that the company has
repeatedly made an effort through cooperation with the Russian Ministries of
Energy and Foreign Affairs to solve the problem through negotiations, but the
efforts were not crowned with success. "Termination of the agreement is
not the legal basis for suspension of Azerbaijani oil deliveries through the
Baku-Novorossiysk route. There is an agreement between the economic subjects
and the transportation fee must be approved bythe Russian agencies," reported Transneft.