Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 4 -- Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have prepared a framework agreement for Kazakhstan to join the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline project, according to Kazakh Energy and Mineral Resource Minister Vladimir Shkolnik.
"At the level of experts from profile ministries and negotiation groups from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan a framework agreement has now been initialed," Shkolnik said Oct. 4 in Almaty.
The agreement will enable the development of other documents for the construction of the Aktau-Baku link to the trunk pipeline, Shkolnik said.
He said the agreement should now be submitted to the governments of both countries for consideration. If they sign a resolution approving the framework agreement, they will work on signing an intergovernmental agreement soon.
The agreement would involve shipping Kazakh crude oil by tanker from Aktau to Baku, where it would enter the BTC pipeline. Plans call initially for 7.5 million tonnes/year of Kazakh crude oil through the pipeline, eventually rising to 20 million tonnes/year.
In August, Shkolnik said Kazakhstan would construct an oil export terminal about 76 km south of Aktau at Kuryk. Pipelines connecting Kuryk with the Aktau extension also will be built, he said (OGJ Online, Aug. 4, 2005).
Officials last May began BTC line fill at the Sangachal terminal near Baku. The pipeline will move crude oil mainly from Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea region to the Mediterranean (OGJ, June 27, 2005, p. 61).
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].