Azeri BTC oil loadings at Ceyhan restart after contamination concerns

Azeri BTC crude loadings from the Turkish port of Ceyhan resumed on Wednesday after a delay of several days caused by increased checks for chloride contamination, several industry sources told Reuters.

Excessive levels of organic chlorides had been found in some crude oil cargoes, several industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Each cargo was tested before loadings could proceed, a trade source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

"BTC has been made aware of a potential quality issue related to organic chlorides in some BTC blend loadings. BTC is currently assessing the quality of the crude oil across all the facilities along the pipeline," BP, operator of the Azerbaijan and Georgia sections of the BTC pipeline, and the BTC Ceyhan terminal, said.

"While we have not yet completed the assessing activities, we continue loadings at Ceyhan using the crude oil from the tanks that have already been assessed. Export via the BTC pipeline also continues," BP added.

The delays led to a sharp decline in the Azeri oil price to the lowest level in four years.

Organic chlorides are used in the industry to boost extraction from oilfields by cleaning oil wells and accelerating the flow of crude, but the compounds must be removed before oil enters pipelines.

A wide-scale contamination led to disruptions of crude exports from Russia in 2019. The sources familiar with BTC operations said no Russian oil is currently being shipped via the route.

The Aframax tanker Searanger proceeded to a berth at the Ceyhan terminal for loading on Wednesday morning after its storage tank was found to be clean of contaminants, a port agent said.

Searanger arrived at Ceyhan on July 19, port documents showed. Another tanker scheduled for loading yesterday was still awaiting clearance, the port agent said.

Exports of Azeri BTC are expected to be 17.3 million barrels in August, on a par with July's plans, according to a loading schedule seen by Reuters.

Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR did not reply to a request for comment.

Searanger is the first loading at BTC Ceyhan since July 19, according to data from global analytics firm Kpler. The July loading schedule showed that up to five BTC cargoes were due to load between July 19-23.

The Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan route is the first direct pipeline link between the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean.

Apart from the oil in Azerbaijan, it transports crude from Kazakhstan, and periodically from the Russian part of the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan.

A source in Kazakhstan said the loadings to BTC from the Chevron-led Tengiz oilfields continue.

Azerbaijan's oil output has been declining for several years after the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) complex passed its peak of 50 million tonnes, or one million barrels per day, in 2010. The ACG field is the largest oilfield in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian basin.

(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku and Robert Harvey in London; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Jan Harvey and Elaine Hardcastle)