Kazakhs, Azeris discuss BTC pipeline

The issue was raised during a meeting between Azerbaijani Economic Development Minister Heydar Babayev and Kazakh Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Baktykozha Izmukhambetov in Baku, the Azerbaijani side said.

The issue is expected to be raised at a meting of the Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation scheduled for August 2007 in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

The 1,040-mile BTC pipeline runs from Baku via Tbilisi, Georgia, to Ceyhan, Turkey. It bypasses the Bosporus chokepoint. The pipeline carried roughly 210,000 barrels per day of Azeri oil and exports from June-September 2006, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. Capacity is expected to be upgraded to 1 million bpd between 2008 and 2009. UPI

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