BTC to Start Oil Pumping in May
The BP Tbilisi office said on Monday that pumping of oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline will begin on May 25, 2005. Reportedly, the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey plan to attend the inaugural ceremony.
Spokesperson for the BP Tbilisi Office Rusudan Medzmariashvili told Civil Georgia on May 9 that a similar ceremony for the launching of BTC operations will be held in Georgia in September.
The BP-led and U.S.-backed BTC pipeline will carry Azeri oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, and eventually to western markets, via Georgia.
The pipeline will stretch 1,767 kilometers (443 km through Azerbaijan, 248 km through Georgia and 1,076 km through Turkey) and have a capacity of 800 thousand barrels of oil per day.
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