Azerbaijan plans to resume oil exports via Russia from July 1

BAKU: Azerbaijan plans to resume crude oil exports via Russia from July 1, State Oil Company of Azerbaijan's (SOCAR) Vice President Elshad Nassirov said on Wednesday.

Nassirov told journalists on the sidelines of an annual Caspian Oil and Gas conference that the country had already applied for the resumption of exports.

SOCAR stopped supplies to Russia's Black Sea's port of Novorossiisk in March, saying planned maintenance on the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline started on March 1, and cancelled the loading of two 80,000-tonne cargoes.

The company diverted crude flows to its own Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline after the suspension of transit via Russia.