Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Oct 26 -- The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline could begin operating by early 2006, according to Tony Hayward, chief executive of the BP PLC exploration and production division. He said the line is expected to start up between yearend and the third week of January 2006.
The BTC pipeline is being developed by an international consortium of 11 partners, led by BP and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (Socar).
Hayward's statement, made to journalists on the sidelines of BP's Oct. 25 earnings conference, clarified earlier confusion over the start-up date of exports from the pipeline's export terminal at the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
BP Azerbaijan Pres. David Woodward was quoted last week by Azerbaijan state media as saying the target to launch full operations by the end of this year was "challenging" because of extensive testing and commissioning in the Turkish section of the pipeline.
Citing Woodward, Azerbaijan's Turan news agency said the first tanker carrying crude from the Azeri oil field would leave Ceyhan in first quarter 2006 instead of this year's fourth quarter.
But Turan also quoted Socar Pres. and Chairman of BTC Co. Natiq Aliyev as saying there was still a possibility of dispatching the first tanker with Azeri crude from the port of Ceyhan before yearend. "The BTC Co. has not yet officially changed the schedule of dispatching the first tanker," he said.
On Oct. 12, the Georgian section of the BTC oil pipeline was inaugurated in the Gardabani District of southern Georgia in a ceremony attended by presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, as well as Steven Mann, the US presidential envoy on Caspian issues (OGJ Online, Oct. 18, 2005).
Linefill of the BTC pipeline began at the Saganchal oil terminal in Azerbaijan on May 10.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
