Kazakhstan Joins BTC Pipeline Project
June 16, 2006
June 16, 2006 -- Kazakhstan has officially joined the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil-pipeline project.
An agreement to that effect was signed today in Almaty by the presidents of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, Nursultan Nazarbaev and Ilham Aliyev, respectively.
Nazarbaev said the agreement is a very important event in the history of Kazakh-Azerbaijani relations.
Under the agreement, Kazakh crude oil would be shipped to Baku across the Caspian Sea, then pumped through the 1,770-kilometer-long BTC pipeline to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
A ceremony to mark the official inauguration of the BTC pipeline is scheduled in Turkey for July 13.
(Interfax-Kazakhstan, Turan)