Moving terminal from Baku bay to Alat district advantageous from commercial and social viewpoints

If necessary a new oil terminal will be built at the new international port in Alyat district, 65 km south of Baku, reads the concept of the socio-economic development of the country for 2014 and the next three years.

“The new port will allow processing dry cargoes, transportation of containers and shipment of ferries. The new oil terminal could be built on the territory of the port in the future, if necessary,” reads the concept. The document reads that construction of a new port and moving of the old port from downtown Baku is important to improve traffic in Baku and improve ecological situation in the city.

“In 2015 the port will be able to process 11.6 million tons of cargo a year,” reads the concept.

The current terminal located at the Baku bay was built by TransChart company in 1998 and was the first private terminal in Azerbaijan. Soon Azpetrol Holding took control of it and for a long time it belonged to Azertrans, a transport division of the holding. After 2005 the terminal was operated by CrossCaspian company, a joint venture established by State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Dubai-based Middle East Petrol company, which is a part of Intersun Holding. 

Moving of the terminal from the Baku bay outside of downtown is assessed positively by the experts. The terminal receives mainly the oil products from the right coast of the Caspian Sea, which are then delivered to the Georgian ports in cistern cars. The shipment by train from the Baku centre to Alat district sometimes takes 5-6 hours, because this section of the railway is overcrowded. Moving of the terminal from the Baku bay to the new port will allow easing traffic downtown Baku (this also means improvement of the ecological situation) and reducing time of oil and oil products delivery via the South Caucasus transport corridor.—0—