The BP Plc-operated Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan pipeline carried almost 5.23 million metric tons of Azeri crude oil in the first two months of the year, a decline of 8.8 percent from a year earlier.

The pipeline known as BTC, which ships crude from Azerbaijan across Georgia and Turkey to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, has handled 181 million tons of oil since opening in 2005, State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan said on its website.

Azerbaijan, the third-largest oil producer in the former Soviet Union, also uses two smaller export pipelines, running from Baku to the Black Sea ports of Supsa and Novorossiysk.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at zagayev@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm at htromm@bloomberg.net