Less Kazakh Crude, Pipeline Impacts Black Sea Liftings

Crude oil and refined oil product shipments from Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi fell 22.7 percent in 2014 from a year earlier, a senior official at the terminal said on Monday.

Bad weather in Kazakhstan, where the oil is produced, lower-than-expected output from the Kashagan oilfield at the beginning of the year and re-routing part of oil shipments to the Baku-Tbilisi Ceyhan pipeline contributed to the decline, said the official, who declined to be identified.

The Batumi terminal, operated by Kazakh state energy company KazMunaiGas , shipped 4.355 million tonnes of oil and oil products last year, down from 5.634 million tonnes in 2013.

Shipments in December were 441,675 tonnes, down from 457,033 tonnes in December 2013, but up from 423,940 tonnes in November.

Crude and refined oil products from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are shipped out of Georgia's Black Sea ports of Batumi, Supsa, Poti and the terminal in Kulevi.

Some products are shipped across the Caspian Sea in small tankers, unloaded in the Azeri port of Baku and then sent by rail to Georgian ports for export to the Mediterranean. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze