ARMENIA TO HAVE PROBLEMS WHEN 50 MLN TONS OF OIL RUN THROUGH BTC

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.11.2008 13:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Some 26 million tons of oil were pumped through
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline during the period from January to
September 2008. It was mostly Azeri oil with 5-6 tons from Kazakhstan
which can help secure rated capacity of 50 mln tons, a Kazakh expert
said.

"Kazakhstan’s export can’t exceed 10 mln tons yet. However, pumping
in Tengiz oil field started in October gave additional 5 mln tons
per year. The situation is as follows: construction of exporting
pipelines exceeded the output volume, originating struggle for
re-distribution of volumes," Marat Shibutov, member of Association
of frontier cooperation, told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Now, Azerbaijan should try to gain Tengiz’s 10 mln tons increment
for the BTC to bring the pumping volume to 40 mln tons. Otherwise
the project is doomed to failure, according to him.

"As to Armenia, it will have problems when 50 mln tons of oil run
through the BTC. Azerbaijan will grow stronger. At that, Europe
and U.S. will appreciate an independent oil supplier. Furthermore,
three of Armenia’s four neighbors – Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia
have common economic interests and a joint project. Deployment of
international forces to guard the pipeline is not ruled out. Under
the circumstances, an armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan
is impossible and is equal to suicide for Armenia. If Turkey decides
to help Azerbaijan by attacking Armenia from the west, the results
will be deplorable," Shibutov said.