Commodities June 18, 2026 10:13 AM

Azerbaijan BTC Pipeline Shipments Fall 8.6% in First Five Months of 2026

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan remains dominant route but overall transit and third-country volumes slip year-on-year

By Hana Yamamoto
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Official statistics show Azerbaijan moved 10.6 million metric tons of crude via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from January through May 2026, an 8.6% decline compared with the same period in 2025. The BTC carried 76.8% of the country's total oil transit of 13.8 million tons, while transit shipments from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through the BTC also edged lower.

Azerbaijan BTC Pipeline Shipments Fall 8.6% in First Five Months of 2026
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Key Points

  • Azerbaijan transported 10.6 million metric tons of oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in January-May 2026, an 8.6% decline versus the same period in 2025.
  • The BTC accounted for 76.8% of Azerbaijan's total oil transit of 13.8 million metric tons during the five-month period.
  • Transit shipments from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through the BTC fell to 1.856 million metric tons from 1.934 million metric tons year-on-year.

Data released by Azerbaijan's statistics committee indicate that 10.6 million metric tons of oil were transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline over the first five months of 2026. This represents an 8.6% reduction relative to the volume moved through the pipeline in the same January-May window of 2025.

The BTC pipeline, which conveys crude through Georgia to Turkey, carries production from the Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli oilfields. Those fields are operated by BP, which is identified as the operator of the producing assets associated with the volumes routed through BTC.

Across January to May 2026, Azerbaijan's total oil transit amounted to 13.8 million metric tons. The BTC's share of that transit was 76.8%, underscoring the pipeline's central role in the country's outbound oil flows during the five-month period.

Volumes of transit oil originating in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and shipped via the BTC pipeline also declined on a year-on-year basis. Transit shipments from those two countries totaled 1.856 million metric tons in the January-May 2026 period, down from 1.934 million metric tons in the comparable five-month period of 2025.

The statistics committee figures provide a month-to-date view of physical flows through the BTC corridor and the contribution of third-country transit to overall pipeline throughput. They show both the absolute tonnage carried by BTC and its proportional contribution to Azerbaijan's broader transit total for the first five months of the year.


Contextual notes: The reported figures are drawn from the official dataset published by Azerbaijan's statistics committee for January through May 2026. The data specify BTC volumes, total national transit, and transit volumes from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan for the same period and the corresponding period in 2025.

Risks

  • Year-on-year declines in BTC throughput could affect sectors tied to physical oil flows, including pipeline transport and export logistics.
  • Reduced third-country transit volumes from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan may influence overall pipeline utilization and related revenues.

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