Shevardnadze Says EBRD Ready to Grant Loan for BTC
(Tbilisi, May 13, 2003. Civil Georgia) – Georgian President Shevardnadze said in his radiobroadcast on May 12 that European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide USD 400 million loan for construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
?The loan will be available in the autumn,? President Shevardnadze said.
Eduard Shevardnadze participated at the annual meeting of the EBRD in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on May 3-4.
Earlier this month there was some fears that the EBRD could not grant loans for the BTC as in late April Vice-President of Azeri State Oil Company (SOCAR) Ilham Aliev said that issue of loan from the EBRD for the construction of the BTC pipeline ?has run into problems.?
Aliev said the delay was linked to widely held concerns about the environmental impact of the US-backed pipeline project.
“Because of the delay in financing, Azerbaijan will itself find the funds to finance its participation in the project until the credit lines open up,” said Aliev.
The US-backed BTC is USD 2.9-billion pipeline project to export Caspian oil to the western markets via Georgia and Turkey.
The pipeline consortium is led by oil major BP and also includes oil companies Statoil, SOCAR, ConocoPhillips, Itochum TotalFinaElf, Inpex, Unocal, TPAO, Eni Agip and Amerada Hess.
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