Agreement on oil transit via BTC to be inked in Baku

An intergovernmental agreement on the transportation of Kazakhstani oil via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline may be inked during the visit of Danial Akhmetov, prime minister of RK, to Azerbaijan in April. Abbas Abbasov, first vice premier of Azerbaijan, has advised journalists about it, KZ-today correspondent reports from Baku.

According to A.Abbasov, Kazakhstan is interested in transporting its oil via BTC pipeline, and this issue has been reflected in a joint declaration, signed by the presidents of Azerbaijan and RK during the visit of Ilham Aliyev to Astana. "All positions of Kazakhstan on this project are contained in this document," - the first vice premier has stressed.

Earlier Lyazzat Kyinov, deputy minister of energy and mineral resources of RK, said that the visit of Danial Akhmetov, prime minister of RK, to Baku was going to take place in April.

When intergovernmental agreement on the transportation of Kazakhstani oil via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is inked between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, transit agreements between the investors of Aktau-Baku system and governments of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan will be signed as well.

To create the Aktau-Baku system the construction of new terminal for storage and transfer of oil and of junction lines is suggested in Kuryk (a port 76 km South East of Aktau). The capacity of the transferring system will be 20 million tons of oil per annum, up to 7.5 million tons will be transported during the first phase. The volume of investments will be defined when the intergovernmental agreement is inked. The new system will be built by the moment when the first oil from Kashagan field comes.

A separate company will be created to manage Aktau-Baku system, whose main investors will be four companies - ENI, TotalFinaElf, ConocoPhilips and Inpex, participating in the development of Kazakhstani field Kashagan and owning 15% share participation in the BTC Co (operator for the pipeline construction and operations).

The length of BTC pipeline is 1,762 km, of which - 443 km are in Azerbaijan, in Georgia - 248 km, in Turkey - 1070 km. The pipeline capacity is 50 million tons of oil per annum. The construction works started in April 2003 and will be completed in the 4th quarter of 2004. The export of Azeri oil from Ceyhan port (Turkey) must start in the 2nd quarter of 2005. Presently, 55% of the construction works have been completed. The total cost of the project is $3.6 billion.

The participants of BTC project are: BP (30.1 %); SOCAR (25.00 %); Unocal (8.90 %); Statoil (8.71 %); TPAO (6.53 %); ENI (5.00 %); Itochu (3.40 %); ConocoPhillips (2.50 %); INPEX (2.50 %), Total (5.00 %), and Amerada Hess (2.36 %).