BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is 40 percent full, and we aim to fill an available volume with 20 million tons of oil, Serik Zhumangarin, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan said this, answering journalists' questions on the sidelines of the 19th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan intergovernmental commission, Trend reports.
The minister said that the agreement signed between the oil and gas companies of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, SOCAR (the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) and KazMunayGas (the state-owned oil and gas company of Kazakhstan), is designed for the transshipment of 1.5 million tons of oil.
"About 20,000 tons have been already passed in March of this year via the BTC pipeline route, and 125,000 tons are expected to be transshipped in April. Kazakhstan's subsoil users view the first volumes of oil as a pilot to test the route," Zhumangarin said.
The deputy FM also noted the strengthening of cooperation in other areas, in particular in the field of trade.
"According to Kazakh statistics, our mutual trade turnover has reached almost $500 million," Zhumangarin concluded.
The 19th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan was held in Baku.