IOCG president to ink agreements on loans for BTC

Giya Chanturia, president of the International Oil Corporation of Georgia (IOCG) will participate in the ceremony of inking a package of agreements on Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan MEP today, on 3 February in Baku, KZ-today correspondent reports from Baku with reference to a report from the IOCG.

Besides, Helmi Guler, minister of energy of Turkey, who arrived to Baku yesterday, on 2 Feburary will also participate in the ceremony.

The total volume of credit funds attracted for the project, including the interest on credits, will make $2.6 billion. In total $2.95 billion will be required for the construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project. (The total cost of the project is $3.6 billion, including the interest on credit).

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 %).

The length of BTC pipeline makes 1,767 km, of which - 443 km are in Azerbaijan, in Georgia - 248 km, in Turkey - 1076 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. Moreover, the construction of Georgian part is planned to be completed in October, 2004, and the Turkish one - in November. The export of Azeri oil from Ceyhan port (Turkey) must start in the 2nd quarter of 2005.