Kazakhstan and TotalFinaElf of France have agreed to study the feasibility of an oil pipeline south along the eastern Caspian shore to Iran, in a move that could anger US policymakers, The Financial Times reported.
The French oil group is expected in the next few weeks to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Kazakh government to launch a year-long study into a possible pipeline from the Kazakh oilfields to the Iranian border, the daily said.
TotalFinaElf, according to a company source, expects to bring "non-European partners" into the study, thought possibly to be Japan companies.
According to the paper, the US has in particular given its political support to the BTC pipeline planned from Baku in Azerbaijan, through Tbilisi in Georgia, to Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast as the best alternative outlet to an Iranian route.
Detailed engineering is about to begin on the BTC line, and construction is due to start in a year.
But promoters of the new study say the Iranian route would be shorter and therefore cheaper than the two other main new exits out of the Caspian, it added.
These are the 1,740km BTC line estimated to cost $2.7bn, and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) line, which cost $2.6bn to build along the 1,500km from Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfields to Novorossiisk on Russia's Black Sea coast – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
