PRESS CONFERENCE On Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline

 

The Azerbaijani, Georgian and Turkish Ambassadors to the United Nations held a press conference at the world body’s New York Headquarters today, to announce the official opening of a major pipeline carrying oil from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, which is predicted will deliver more than a million barrels of oil per day by 2008.

The 1,760-kilometre Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline –- the world’s second longest –- originates in Azerbaijan’s Baku and links the Central Asian countries.  The massive undertaking, which was a decade in the making, establishes what the senior diplomats called an “energy bridge”, opening up a secure, environmentally safe east-west energy corridor that will export oil and gas, as well as diversify supply routes, from the Caspian Sea to Western Europe and other energy consuming markets. 

“Today’s events mark Azerbaijan’s rebirth as an important country for the oil industry”, said Ambassador Yashar Aliyev, who recalled that, in 1847, the drilling of the world’s first oil well in his country had launched the global oil production industry.  That had been some 12 years before drilling in the oil fields of Pennsylvania had sparked America’s industrial revolution.  Many early inventions and innovative techniques for modern oil production had been first tested and applied in Azerbaijani oil fields.

Azerbaijan had now entered a new era in early June, when the first BTC oil tanker had been filled with Azerbaijani oil, and set sail for world markets.  He said the pipeline would make the Caspian region one of the sources of incremental energy supply to world markets; and would contribute to the diversification of global energy supplies, make a significant input towards meeting the world’s rising energy demands, and complement global efforts towards achieving the relevant Millennium Development Goals.  He welcomed Kazakhstan’s recent decision to join the project, and hoped that new commitment would extend the BTC’s reach and benefits for the region and beyond.

He added that the United States-backed project was not only a modern technological marvel, but a marvel of cooperation between the Governments and peoples of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.  The project, which was sponsored by British Petroleum and a consortium of partners who would run the pipeline, would also bring about collaboration between countries and peoples of the region, aimed at promoting peace, stability, development and mutual prosperity.  He said the BTC will bring new investors to the region and deepen the participation of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey in the global economy.

Recalling the active support of former United States President Bill Clinton in getting the BTC project off the ground, Georgian Ambassador Revaz Adamia said that the road had been difficult and that there had been, and still were, parties who believed that the pipeline contradicted their interests.  But, the project had overcome many obstacles, even the political pressures, that had forced some companies to withdraw their support.

“We [know] that the BTC is not just a tube which is transporting liquid from one place to another place”, he said “it is vivid indicator that the entire region is undergoing irreversible change”.  And while the pipeline would bring large amounts of outside capital and investment to the Caucasus, it would at the same time provide the world market with new, diversified sources and routes for energy, which would increase the security of the world’s energy supply.

Ambassador Baki İlkin said that, with three quarters of the world’s established oil and gas resources located in regions around Turkey, his country was an “energy crossroad”.  Indeed, given its unique geographical location between the Middle East and the Caspian regions and energy consuming markets, Turkey stood as a key country in ensuring energy flow and security.  He added that the Ceyhan terminal, where today’s official inauguration was taking place, would be developed as an energy centre for the entire region.

The BTC project also had an important environmental dimension for Turkey in that it would not only continue to transport oil to Western markets, but would contribute to navigational safety and environmental protection in the Turkish Straits by limiting the number of oil tankers traversing environmentally fragile waterways.

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For information media • not an official record