Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan will prepare agreement on Baku-Jeikhan in 2003

/REUTERS, Almaty, March 11, 03/ - State oil companies of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan intend to work out agreement in 2003, which will determine the scheme of joining oil transportation routs Aktau-Baku and Baku-Jeikhan, informed managing director of Kazakhstan state oil and gas holding Kazmunaigas Kairgeldy Kabyldin. "During this year we are going to prepare the first variant of this intergovernmental agreement", - Kabyldin said at the press-conference on Tuesday after the next round of negotiations with representatives of Azerbaijan oil producing GNKAR and BTC Co., building oil pipeline Baku-Jeikhan. Kabyldin did not call the planned volumes of Kazakhstan oil supplies through this rout. "It will be determined by sponsors (oil producing companies), basing themselves on the volumes, which will be received for entering Baku-Jeikhan", - he said. Only four companies, which own market shares in the project Baku-Jeikhan work in Kazakhstan: ENI (5%), TotalFinaElf (5%), Inpex (2.5%) and ConocoPhillips (2.5%). It is planned to set in operation the oil pipeline with the capacity equaling to 50 m tons a year in 2005. Kazakhstan ambassador in Azerbaijan Andar Shukputov said Reuters in the beginning of March that volume of Kazakhstan oil transit through Azerbaijan and Georgia, which is made by railway, in 2003 will increase to three million tons from two millions in last year. In the ambassador's opinion, oil from northern shelf of Kazakhstan sector of Caspian Sea, industrial extraction of which will start in two years, may be sent to the oil pipeline Balu-Jeikhan. Глава GNKAR Natik Aliyev assumed that Kazakhstan oil supply to the system Baku-Jeikhan will start later. "I think it will occur no earlier than in 2008-2009, and may be even later", - he said. Managing director of Kazmunaigas also said Kazakhstan did not plan to lay pipeline on the bottom of Caspian Sea yet in order to join terminals of Aktau and Baku. "From technical point of view its possible, but it's economically more effective to use sea transport on the first stages ", - Kabyldin said having added that building of the oil pipeline is prevented both political and ecological problems. In the end of February special representative of RF on Caspian Sea Viktor Kalyuzhniy said that Russia clamored building of the oil pipeline, because realization of that project threatened to the reservoir's ecology. Oil production in Kazakhstan in 2002 was equal to 47 m tons, and by 2010 the country intends to increase this volume up to 100 m tons. [2003-03-11]