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* SOCAR halts oil exports via Russia in Feb. 2014
* Exports by Baku-Ceyhan pipeline to rise to 31.5 mln t in2014
By Nailia Bagirova
BAKU, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's state energy company,SOCAR, plans to halt oil exports via Russia in February, optinginstead to send the bulk of its crude through Turkey whileretaining some to cover rising domestic demand for oil products,a SOCAR official said.
"Azerbaijan will stop oil exports by the Baku-Novorossiiskpipeline in February," an official from SOCAR's marketingdepartment told Reuters.
"Oil exports via Russia will reach 1.8 million tonnes by theend of 2013. We will ship 1.5 million tonnes through theBaku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline next year and send 300,000 tonnesto boost domestic oil processing and oil product manufacturing,"the official said.
He added that exports via Baku-Ceyhan, which is operated byBritish oil major BP, would rise to 31.5 million tonnesin 2014 from the 30 million tonnes expected this year.
The use of oil for manufacturing oil products is expected torise by 4.8 percent in 2014 from an expected 6.2 million tonnesin 2013.
Azerbaijan's oil exports via Russia fell 9.6 percent to 1.50million tonnes in the first 10 months of 2013 from 1.66 milliontonnes in the same period of 2012.
Full-year Azeri exports in 2012 via Russia rose to 2.06million tonnes from 1.99 million in 2011.
In May, Russia terminated a contract to pump Azeri oilacross its territory, ending a 16-year intergovernmentalagreement on the grounds that Azerbaijan had not been shippingthe agreed quantities.
A new contract would have to set a tariff, and under the"pump or pay" principle Azerbaijan would need to pay even if itdid not use the designated capacity, which was a clause to whichBaku did not agree.
Still, oil flows along the 1,330-km pipeline from the Azericapital of Baku on the Caspian Sea to the Russian Black Sea portof Novorossiisk have continued under a separate contract betweenRussian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft and SOCAR.
Transneft said no talks were under way on a new contract toreplace the one they signed in 1996.
Under that agreement, Azerbaijan guaranteed to ship no lessthan 5.0 million tonnes a year by 2002 through the pipeline, butit now pumps around 2 million tonnes annually.
