Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR is
set to hold talks with companies interested in joining a US-backed Caspian oil pipeline project, a top SOCAR official has said.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline will link the Azeri capital Baku with the Turkish Mediterranean, transporting Azeri and possibly Kazakh oil to Western markets.
Oil companies are welcome to bid for some 12.5 per cent of the project's shares, said Valekh Aleskerov, head of SOCAR's foreign investment department.
SOCAR will remain the project's main negotiator only until June or July, when final approval is given to the construction project, Mr Aleskerov said, urging prospective investors to hurry up.
"Before the project is approved, companies will be able to join the project on more profitable conditions than after the approval, when the conditions will be commercially harsher," he warned.
The pipeline will be 1,750 kilometres (1,085 miles) long and cost an estimated $2.875 billion (€3.297 billion) to build.
The project consortium is currently made up of SOCAR, BP, which is also the operator, Statoil, Eni Agip, Unocal, Delta Hess, TPAO and Itochu. Pipeline construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year.
Russia's Lukoil, ChevronTexaco and TotalFinaElf are among those who have expressed an interest in buying BTC shares.
AFP