Transit agreement on Aktau-BTC system to be ready by early 2006

/Kazakhstan today, August 15, 05/ - The transit agreement (an agreement between a transit country and investors) on transportation of Kazakhstani oil by Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline will be completed by early 2005 - late 2006, Natiq Aliyev, president of the SOCAR, told KZ-today correspondent. "The volume of work on this document is big. It will be ready by the end of the current or the beginning of the next year," - he said. The agreement on the transportation of Kazakhstani oil by the BTC pipeline will be signed by the investor companies of the Aktau-Baku system and the governments of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. It is expected that commercial contracts between the BTC Co. (operator for the pipeline construction and operations) and Kazakhstani oil transportation companies will be inked right after the signing of this agreement. A separate company will be created to manage Aktau-Baku system, whose main investors will be four companies - ENI, TotalFinaElf, ConocoPhilips and Inpex, participating in the development of Kazakhstani field Kashagan and owning 15% share participation in the BTC Co.To create the Aktau-Baku system the construction of new terminal for storage and transfer of oil and of junction lines is suggested in Kuryk (a port 76 km South East of Aktau). The capacity of the transferring system will be 20 million tons of oil per annum, up to 7.5 million tons will be transported during the first phase. The new system will be completed by the moment when the first oil from Kashagan field comes. The length of BTC pipeline is 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 participants of BTC project are the following: 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 %). ENI, ConocoPhillips, Inpex, and Total also participate in Kashagan field development. [2005-08-15]