Azerbaijan will export around 3 million tonnes of crude oil (60,000 barrels per day) via Russia\'s Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in 2006, Russian and Azeri oil ministers said in an agreement signed on Tuesday. That is less than last year\'s 4.3 million tonnes but more than the 2.6-2.7 million tonnes sent through the pipeline in 2004. Azerbaijan expects to make up the shortfall with the launch of a new pipeline to Ceyhan in Turkey this year. Azerbaijan relies on piping oil to foreign sea ports because its own coast is on the landlocked Caspian Sea, so it must turn to neighbouring Russia, Georgia and Turkey to market its oil. Azeri state oil firm SOCAR said it was prepared to supply 2.5 million tonnes a year through the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline in the long-term, with oil pumped from its older fields. Newer fields in the Caspian Sea would supply the new pipeline to Ceyhan and an existing one to Supsa in Georgia. A huge Azeri gas field, Shakh-Deniz, is also under development by British oil major BP Plc and Norway\'s Statoil. (Reuters)