Sunday, May 28, 2006
First Loading from BTC pipeline begins at Ceyhan

Cihan News Agency 27/05/2006

Caspian oil pumped through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline has
reached the Mediterranean Turkish port of Ceyhan, and the first loading of
Azeri oil to tankers will take place today.
The British Hawthame tanker will dock at the Ceyhan terminal to load the
Azeri oil.
There will be no an inauguration ceremony to mark the transfer of the crude
oil to oil tankers today, but the presidents of Turkey, Georgia and
Azerbaijan, the three countries the BTC passes through, are to meet on
July 13th in Ceyhan for official ceremony.
The Azeri oil in the pipeline covered 1,076 km of its total voyage in
Turkey. The long awaited Azeri oil has arrived at the Ceyhan marine terminal
on the Mediterranean coast last week after a year of delay and re-scheduling.
The 1,760 km-pipeline had originally been scheduled for opening in the
second half of 2005. However, construction of the Turkish section of the
pipeline was not completed on time, causing oil export from the terminal to
be delayed.
The first crude oil was pumped from the Azeri capital Baku on May 10, 2005
and arrived at the Turkish border on November 17, 2005.
Turkey will gain annual $300 million from the pipeline which will transport
daily 1 million barrel oil.
The BTC pipeline runs from the Azeri capital Baku, passes by the Georgian
capital Tbilisi and reaches its destination at the Turkish Mediterranean port
of Ceyhan.
The pipeline is expected to reduce tanker traffic through the Bosphorus and
Dardanelles.