The United States lobbied Wednesday for a multi-billion-dollar pipeline route to export oil from Kazakhstan to Turkey as competition hots up over oil transport projects for the ex-Soviet state.
The US president's special adviser on Caspian energy questions, Elizabeth Jones, warned that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project could go ahead without Kazakhstan's participation, but "it would be better to fill (the pipeline) completely," Interfax reported.
The US government is heavily backing the $2.4-billion pipeline. Its commercial viability is thought to hang on oil commitments from Kazakhstan. The advantages of the BTC pipeline, from a US point of view, are chiefly that it would short-circuit attempts by Russia or Iran to pressurise the oil supply system by avoiding territory under their control.
The link could export up to 200,000 barrels of oil every 24 hours from Kazakhstan, the US adviser was cited by Interfax as saying. The proposed pipeline could carry up to one million barrels of oil a day, she said. Azerbaijan had said it could provide up to 80 percent of that capacity.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was "very much in favour of this pipeline," Jones said, although the country has avoided making a firm commitment to any of the proposals.
The US adviser's visit comes after conflicting reports of Kazakhstan's interest in a proposed oil link to Iran, which is considered by some experts as the most economically viable, but is opposed by the United States.
French oil group TotalFinaElf is a member of the Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company (OKIOC) exploring what could be one of the world's largest offshore oil fields in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian sea.
The oil giant believes the route to Iran to be one of the most serious. But Jones said some research had shown the Iranian route was "not significantly" cheaper than the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline proposal, Interfax reported.
"I think they will find that it is not nearly as economic as going through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan because it is already underway and the conclusion of construction is very close to the requirement for shipment of oil volumes from Kazakhstan. Iran would be way too late," she said.
The engineering phase on the route to Turkey had begun at an expected cost of 136 million dollars and would last another 18 months after which construction would start, Jones said.
"It is my belief that the group involved in OKIOC will be convinced the volumes of oil coming out of Kashagan (offshore field) will have to use Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan in order to reach the West," she added.—AFP.
©--Agence France Presse.
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
