Kazakhstan Joins BTC

(Tbilisi, Civil Georgia, December 9, 2002) – Reports say today that the Kazakhstan officially announced that it would supply up to 400,000 barrels per day of crude oil to the planned BP-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which is to carry Azeri oil to the western markets via Georgia and Turkey.

Since November, Kazakhstan’s state petroleum company KazMunaiGaz has been in intensive talks with the BTC consortium, led by Britain’s BP oil company.

Earlier BP has said it would welcome a role for Kazakhstan. The consortium has long insisted that it has enough oil in Azerbaijan to fill the 1 million-barrels-per-day line, but it has not turned Kazakhstan away. An intergovernmental agreement is reportedly being prepared.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)