TotalFinaElf recently announced that it has signed an agreement with the Sponsor Group of the BTC Pipeline Project, which links Baku in Azerbaijan to Ceyhan in Turkey. This agreement gives it the right to acquire a five percent share in the Pipeline Company at project sanction, confirmed a press release.
TotalFinaElf is involved in large exploration and production projects in the Caspian Sea area where hydrocarbon transportation is a key business driver for the oil and gas activities. The decision to join the Sponsor Group of the BTC is thus part of this strategy and would give TotalFinaElf access, once the project is sanctioned, to export capacity for part of its future production from the Caspian Area, notably Kazakhstan.
The BTC pipeline will be the second major export pipeline following the recent start of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) operations in the northern part of the region. TotalFinaElf suggested that other major export lines will also be necessary notably toward the Arab-Persian Gulf in order to provide access to the Asian markets. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
