Baku–Batumi Pipeline

Baku-Batumi oil pipeline is one of the first and the oldest oil pipelines in the South Caucasus.

Through this pipeline, Baku oil passed from the Batumi sea port to the foreign market. In 1880, Russian scientist, Dmitri Mendeleev, proposed the construction of the Baku–Batumi pipeline. In order to satisfy the interests of the oil industrialists of Baku, they initially built a kerosene pipeline for pumping only refined oil products (1897-1907). Its total length was 863 km (441 km of it was on the territory of Georgia). The capacity was 960,000 tons per year. The construction of the kerosene pipeline cost approximately 21 million Azerbaijan manat. Later, it was decided to lay a new oil pipeline and start the reconstruction of the old kerosene pipeline into an oil pipeline. The construction of the Baku-Batumi oil pipeline started at the beginning of 1928 and ended in February 1930. The 200 mm diameter oil pipeline was replaced by a 250 mm one, and later by a 330 mm diameter pipeline. The total length of the Baku-Batumi oil pipeline was 822.1 km.

The length of the oil pipeline passing through the territory of Georgia is 370 km. Oil is transported through 6 pump stations, three of which are located on the territory of Georgia. The capacity of the oil pipeline is 5 million tons of oil per year.

M. Jibuti

O. Megrelishvili