Two European companies received dirty oil from Azerbaijan – Bloomberg
Ceyhan oil terminal, Turkey (photo - EPA)

The British company BP (British Petroleum) and the Italian Eni have reported problems with the quality of Azerbaijani oil. About this writes Bloomberg.

In some batches of oil transported by pipeline Baku – Tbilisi – Ceyhan (BTC), organic chlorides were detected that can damage the equipment of oil refineries.

The pipeline, which exports Azerbaijani oil to Turkey, has pumped about 575,000 barrels of crude oil per day since the beginning of the year. BP said that oil shipments from the reservoirs, which have already been assessed, continue, as well as exports through the BTC pipeline.

BP manages the BTC company that built the pipeline.

"BTC Co. has been notified of a potential quality issue related to the presence of organic chlorides in some of the crude oil shipments delivered through the pipeline," BP said.

The company is currently assessing the quality of crude oil at all facilities along the pipeline.

Eni has purchased some of the contaminated Azerbaijani oil and some of it has managed to get into the refining system. The company said it had discovered the contaminated oil during internal tests.

"Now the oil that is already flowing into our systems will be processed properly, without any risk to the environment, health or safety," said an Eni spokesperson.

The port agent said that the Searanger tanker, which had arrived in Ceyhan for Azerbaijani oil, had suspended loading.

These circumstances have affected the cost of Azerbaijani oil, Bloomberg notes. According to traders, this week two batches of Azeri Light crude were sold at the lowest prices in four years.

  • In 2019, an elevated content of organic chlorides was found in Russian oil exported to Europe via the Druzhba pipeline. Then the transit was suspended Poland and Ukraine. Also temporarily refused from Russian oil a number of European companies, including Eni, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell.
  • As a result, some batches of contaminated oil were sold at a large discount, and buyers began looking for other sources of supply.