Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR shipped 728,768 tonnes of oil via Russia in the 8 months through August 2016, down from 930,671 tonnes in the same period last year, reported the company on September 2, 2016.
The decline is attributed to SOCAR being unable to export via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline for the first 2 months of the year.
It resumed exports via the pipeline in March 2016 after signing an agreement in late February with AK Transneft on shipments, ending a 3-month hiatus while a new deal was negotiated.
Azerbaijan ships a small proportion of its oil exports via Russia and uses routes through Georgia and Turkey for the bulk of its crude shipments.
SOCAR said it expects to ship 1.3million tonnes of Azeri crude through Russia this year, up from 1.27 million tonnes in 2015 and 1.02million tonnes in 2014.
SOCAR's crude has a lower sulphur content than Russia's Urals blend. The company receives crude from Transneft to fill its loading slots at the Novorossiisk oil terminal.
