Azerbaijan can restart exports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) through the Batumi Oil Terminal in Georgia. The decision was taken during a meeting between Azerbaijan’s and Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministers during a intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation of the two countries. The Batumi Oil Terminal in Georgia is operated by the Kazakh national company KazTransOil, but during the last years Azerbaijan sharply reduced volumes of exported LPG from 156,000 tons in 2010 to 23,000 tons in 2014 and halted transportation in 2015. This reflected the turnover of the Georgian oil terminal and seriously affected the revenues of the port operator KazTransOil.

Batumi Oil Terminal is the only terminal in Georgia, which is capable for storing, handling and export of liquefied natural gas from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. It allows Azerbaijan export of LNG and LPG to Europe through Black Sea, which is the cheapest route. The total volume of the tank farm in Batumi Oil Terminal for the storage of LPG is 5,000 cbm. The terminal is equipped with a drain overpass of 14 tank wagons.

The technological heart of Batumi Oil Terminal is the main area which includes main rail estacadas, the quality control laboratory, as well as the boiler facility designed for steam generation and heating of dark oil products. The main Batumi Oil Terminal competitive advantage is its flexibility in transshipment of a wide variety of crude oil and oil products. The terminal is able to transship up to 22 types of crude oil and oil products. The cargoes are delivered to Batumi Oil Terminal by rail and are then discharged into tank farms through the specialized railcar estacadas.