KazTransOil Lifts BTC-Bound Oil 24% to 1.164M Tonnes

KazTransOil, Kazakhstan's national oil pipeline operator, shipped 1.164 million tonnes of oil towards the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline in January to September 2026, up 24% year on year, the company said in nine-month results reported by Trend on 12 October 2026. Over the same period its transshipment into the Caspian Pipeline Consortium-K (CPC-K) system rose 42% to 3.570 million tonnes.

The BTC volumes are part of tanker loadings at the port of Aktau using KazTransOil facilities, which reached 2.608 million tonnes, up 7%. From Aktau the crude crosses the Caspian by tanker to Azerbaijan and is then piped through BTC across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye to Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast.

The route is the oil counterpart of the Middle Corridor (Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, TITR), the China to Europe route through Kazakhstan, across the Caspian, through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Türkiye and the Black Sea. The Times of Central Asia describes the Caspian crossing as the route that gives Kazakhstan access to European buyers without crossing Russian territory. For Azerbaijan, higher Kazakh volumes mean more cargo for its Caspian shipping and more throughput for BTC.

Growth picked up in September

KazTransOil's release for January to August, published on 9 September 2026, put BTC-bound transshipment at 1.034 million tonnes, up 12%, and Aktau tanker loadings at 2.384 million tonnes, up 6%. The nine-month figures imply about 130,000 tonnes moved towards BTC in September alone, by CBJ's calculation, and the cumulative growth rate doubled from 12% to 24% within a month. CPC-K transshipment stood at 3.123 million tonnes after eight months, up 39%.

Across the wider network, KazTransOil's consolidated oil transportation and petroleum product transshipment reached 35.809 million tonnes in the nine months, up 3%, and oil moved through its main pipeline system rose 4% to 34.392 million tonnes. Exports of Kazakh oil through the Atasu-Alashankou pipeline towards China rose 26% to 984,000 tonnes. Volumes at the Batumi Oil Terminal group in Georgia were flat at 1.417 million tonnes, after what CBJ reported as a strong August.

Still small next to CPC

The CPC-K figure covers only oil that KazTransOil delivers into the consortium's system, not Kazakhstan's total CPC exports. In 2025 the country exported 78.7 million tonnes of oil, 64.8 million of them through CPC and about 1.2 million through BTC, The Times of Central Asia reported in August, citing official data. Azerbaijan has said it is prepared to receive up to 2.2 million tonnes of Kazakh oil a year.

Disruption on the Russian Black Sea coast has sharpened interest in alternatives. After drone attacks near the CPC terminal forced loading restrictions in July, Kazakhstan's oil and condensate output fell by about 21% by 22 July, according to the same report. Scaling up the Caspian route still requires more port capacity at Aktau and more tankers, and CBJ has reported on KazMunayGas plans to raise BTC exports.

What to watch

• Full-year BTC volumes: after nine months, shipments are already close to the roughly 1.2 million tonnes sent via BTC in all of 2025, but still well short of the 2.2 million tonnes Azerbaijan has offered to take.
• CPC loadings. Any renewed disruption at the Black Sea terminal would test how much extra crude the Aktau route can absorb.
• Tanker and port capacity on both Caspian shores, which limits how fast the route can grow.
• Whether September's pace holds in the fourth quarter, which will show if the jump reflects a lasting shift or one-off cargoes.

Sources: Trend, 12 October 2026; Trend, 12 October 2026; KazTransOil press release via KASE, 9 September 2026; The Times of Central Asia, 20 August 2026