Agreement on Kazakh oil transit through BTC to be ready by May 10

Abbas Abbasov, First Vice Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, has stated in an interview to Kazakhstan Today correspondent that the agreement will be finalised by May 10.

"The final round of the talks between the working groups of the two countries will take place on April 29 in Baku. Kazakhstani experts that will arrive in Baku as memners of a government delegation to participate in the fourth meeting of the intergovernmental commission will hold talks with top officials from the Ministries of Industry, Energy, and Transport of Azerbaijan, the SOCAR and other authorities in order to finalise the agreement," Mr Abbasov said.

Earlier Andar Shukputov, ambassador of RK to Azerbaijan, said the agreement would be inked during the planned visit of Danial Akhmetov, Prime Minister of RK, planned this May for participation in the summit of the heads of state and government of the Economic Co-operation Organisation member states or during the solemn ceremony of departure of the first tanker with Azeri oil from Ceyhan port in late June. If they manage to resolve all issues in due time, I believe that the agreement may be inked at the ECO summit or it can take place at the first tanker ceremony in Ceyhan," Mr Shukputov said.

The talks between the SOCAR and "KazMunaiGaz" NC JSC on Kazakhstan accession to the BTC started in November, 2002. The intergovernmental agreement between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan creates a new Aktau-Baku system for the transportation of Kazakhstani oil by the BTC pipeline. The capacity of the transferring system will be 20 million tons of oil per annum, up to 7.5 million tons will be transported during the first phase.

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