Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Mar. 30 -- Azerbaijan's Minister for Industry and Energy Natiq Aliyev said Mar. 30 that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline will be launched on May 27, describing reports of a postponement as groundless.
"We are making every effort to wrap up our work," he told Baku's Lider TV. He said the formal launch ceremony might take place late in June.
"We are determined to spare no effort in completing the work and launching the pipeline on May 27," Aliyev said.
He was responding to a report by the Turan news agency that said the date of the pipeline commissioning had been changed.
It quoted Turkey's Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Turan Morali, as saying the first shipment of oil from the Turkish port of Ceyhan would take place at the end of June.
The Turan report said the current stage of testing showed that an official ceremony at Ceyhan might be held toward the end of June.
In February, Aliyev said the first tanker to lift crude from the BTC pipeline would depart the Turkish terminal at Ceyhan in May (OGJ Online, Feb. 16, 2006).
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
