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Tbilisi: Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi shipped less oil in August and September with damage to a railway line carrying oil in fighting with Russia being a factor in the drop, a source at the terminal has said.
Batumi shipped 329,400 tonnes of crude oil and refined products in September, the source said.
The figure was down from the 754,700 tonnes sent in the same month last year and the 512,200 tonnes sent in August of this year amid Georgia's brief war with Russia.
The year-on-year drop came as some crude was re-routed to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which goes to Turkey, and as railway fees rose in neighbouring Azerbaijan last year.
The situation worsened in August 2008 after two blasts on the railway line in Georgia during the war.
Batumi gets crude and refined products by rail.
Some volumes are shipped across the Caspian Sea from Central Asia in small tankers, unloaded in the Azeri port of Baku and then sent by rail to Batumi for re-export to the Med-iterranean.
Some volumes are sent directly from ex-Soviet Azerbaijan by rail, including from the giant BP-led Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli project, mostly by US oil major ExxonMobil.
Kazakh state energy firm KazMunaiGas became the sole owner of the oil terminal in Batumi's port in February 2008 by buying stakes from its partners.
Exxon started shipments in June 2005 and has committed to supplying up to 10 million tonnes of oil over the next five years via Batumi.
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