Azerbaijan plans to boost its oil transit via Russia by 1.8 times year-on-year in 2021, a source at the State Oil Company SOCAR said.

Azerbaijan pumps oil through a 1,330-km pipeline from the capital Baku to Novorossiisk, a port on Russia’s Black Sea coast. The oil-rich country uses this pipeline since 1997.

“Oil transit from Azerbaijan through Russia is estimated at 1.09 million tonnes in 2021, while oil shipment through the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline was 0.613 million tonnes in 2020,” the source, who did not want to be named, told The Tribune.

Crude shipments via Russia slightly exceeded 169,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2021.

Azerbaijan also exports oil via Georgia and Turkey through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and via Georgia by rail and through the Baku-Supsa pipeline.