BAKU, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The operatorship of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline passed from multinational energy company bp to the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) on Thursday as Azerbaijan celebrated the pipeline's 20th anniversary, SOCAR said.
The handover was commemorated with a ceremony at the Sangachal Terminal attended by senior officials from SOCAR and bp. SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf and bp Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye Gio Cristofoli jointly pressed a symbolic control button to formalize the handover.
Najaf described BTC as one of the most significant achievements of Azerbaijan's modern energy strategy, saying it has established a strategic corridor linking the Caspian Sea with the Mediterranean and has transformed exports of Caspian energy resources to global markets.
He said the transfer reflected SOCAR's more than three decades of operational experience and its growing role in managing major regional energy infrastructure.
Cristofoli expressed confidence that SOCAR would maintain the pipeline's high standards of safety, reliability and operational excellence.
The transfer covers the operatorship of the 1,768-km BTC pipeline across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye, as well as joint operatorship of the BTC and South Caucasus Pipeline systems.
The pipeline has a capacity of 1 million barrels of oil per day and has carried more than 4.7 billion barrels of crude oil since it began operations, loading the oil onto 6,271 tankers. It carries mainly Azerbaijani crude oil and condensate, along with shipments from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
