BAKU, February 3 (RIA Novosti) - Azerbaijan's state-owned oil company GNKAR said on Tuesday in January it exported via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline some 167,200 metric tons of crude, which is a 34.7% decline against the same period last year.

Last January the Central Asian country pumped about 1.2 million metric tons of crude through the pipeline, which links the Azerbaijani capital with the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, 2.6% less than in January 2007.

Azerbaijan holds vast oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Sea, which it exports to neighboring Georgia, Turkey, and Europe through three pipelines - the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan via Georgia to Turkey, Baku-Novorossiisk and the Baku-Supsa to Georgia.

The volume of crude transits via the Baku-Novorosiisk pipeline, which is estimated at 5 million metric tons per year, was reduced in 2007 after the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.