Baku, November 3 - Azerbaijan's oil exports are predicted to jump 61 percent to 22.3 million tons in 2006, British oil giant BP's Baku office said on Wednesday.

Nearly all the rise will be the result of a huge boost to exports by the Azerbaijan International Oil Company (AIOC), a consortium of Azerbaijan's state oil company and 10 international oil companies, including BP.

AIOC is expected to export 19.8 million tons of oil next year, most of it through the new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which spans the Caucasus region and Turkey, ending in at the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

This year, the AIOC is forecasting exports of 11.3 million tons.

BP holds a leading 30 percent stake in the consortium running the pipeline.

Other consortium members include Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, Amerada Hess, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Inpex, Itochu, Statoil, Total, TPAO and Unocal.

News selected by Luc MATHIAS, source BakuToday.net