From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Jun 05 2002 - 09:59:00 EDT
CASPIAN NEWS AGENCY
CNA all-inclusive newsline
/19:20 04.06.2002/ Turkish Energy Minister attending 9th International Caspian Oil
and Natural Gas conference and Exhibition in Azerbaijan
Ankara, June 4, 2002. (CNA). Energy and Natural Resources Minister Zeki Cakan is in
Azerbaijan in order to attend the 9th International Caspian Oil and Natural Gas
conference and Exhibition, and to have meetings.
Cakan will make a speech in the "Balkan Session" of the conference, which will be
opened by the President of Azerbaijan Haydar Aliyev.
Cakan said that the improvement in the Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline Project is
satisfying for Turkey, and it was supposed to be, that the pipeline will be
realized by 2005 as planned, in his written statement. Cakan added "I believe that
the interest and attendance of international companies to the project, would
increase in near future
Cakan will meet with the Azerbaijani officials and the committees of the other
states who attend the conference, Turkish Daily News reports.
Cakan added in his written statement "Turkey is conscious about the oil and natural
gas resources in the Caspian Region. The role of the regional states in the
international market would increase in the near future and Turkey will also be
beside these ally countries."
In this extent, Azerbaijan will be first within these countries. The Turkish
companies are taking an active role in the projects of researching and oil
production. Accessing to world market problem puts the new pipeline projects and
also cooperation on the agenda."
______
/19:18 04.06.2002/ Georgian President commented local elections
Tbilisi, June 4, 2002. (CNA). The Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze is ready
to cooperate with every political party, if it acts in accordance with the Georgian
Constitution and recognizes the country's sovereignty. He made this statement in an
interview on national radio today.
Shevardnadze said that the elections to local governments, which took place on June
2, were an important event from the point of view of the democratic development,
despite some excesses. The president pointed out that more than 50 percent of the
electorate took part in the elections.
At the same time he denied the fraud of the election results saying that it "is
excluded", the Black Sea PRESS agency reported.
______
/18:59 04.06.2002/ Turkish President Sezer visits Kazakhstan
Alma-Ata, June 4, 2002. (CNA). The Turkish President Ahmed Sezer is currently
visiting Kazakhstan to take part in the meeting of the Cooperation and
Confidence-Building Measures in Asia Conference.
After his official visit to Mongolia, Sezer was met by Foreign Minister and State
secretary of Kazakhstan Kasimcomart Tokayev and Economy Minister Mecit Esenbayev at
Kazakhstan airport.
Today Sezer will attend the leaders meeting of Cooperation and Confidence-Building
Measures in Asia Conference to which Turkey is also a member.
It is expected that President Sezer would also have bilateral meetings in the
extend of this meeting, Turkish Daily New reports.
______
/14:21 04.06.2002/ Bush sets aside funds for Georgia military
Tbilisi, June 4, 2002. (CNA). The President Bush committed more than $25 million
toward helping the impoverished former Soviet state of Georgia fight Islamic
extremists as part of the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism.
Reuters reports that in a notice to his secretaries of state and defense, Bush said
the money was urgently needed to assist the Georgian military. He said it was also
"vital to the national security interests of the United States."
Georgia's armed forces are in a poor state, badly trained and sometimes
mutinous, and have been defeated in two separatist wars since independence.
Washington was expected to spend a total of $64 million on the mission -- a small
sum by U.S. standards but almost four times the annual defense budget in tiny
Georgia.
U.S. officials said they would train about 2,000 members of the Georgian army --
about one in 10 -- on everything from how to fire a rifle to how to feed fighting
troops. First they would be taught in the classroom and then in the field.
Guerrillas are believed to use the lawless Pankisi Gorge, in northern Georgia, to
regroup and rest between raids across the frontier on Russia's rebel Chechnya
region.
______
/14:19 04.06.2002/ Russia-US summit to assist Karabakh conflict settlement
Yerevan, June 4, 2002. (CNA). The Russian-US summit will have a positive effect on
the Karabakh settlement process. The Russian cochairman of the OSCE Minsk Group for
Karabakh problem, Nikolay Gribkov, said to Arminfo. The talks between the Russia
and US presidents, Vladimir Putin and George Bush, which were held in Moscow, were
very important not only from the point of view of discussing bilateral issues, but
also from the viewpoint of discussing global international problems and regional
conflicts, including the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. Discussion of this issue
during the meeting between the two presidents is a sign of the attention paid to
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict by the heads of these two major states, the Russian
OSCE Minsk Group cochairman said.
Nikolay Gribkov stressed that "the Minsk Group cochairmen have been trying to step
up their efforts to help the sides find a mutually acceptable solution to end the
Karabakh conflict and will continue to do so." In saying this he again recalled
that "the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen are only mediators and it is the conflicting
sides themselves who will have the main say". He expressed the hope that "Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan and Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev would
demonstrate the necessary political will to advance and give a new impetus to the
settlement process.
______
/14:11 04.06.2002/ Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline to get major EBRD funds
Baku, June 4, 2002. (CNA). The planned major oil pipeline from Azeri oilfields to
the Turkish port of Ceyhan, once dismissed as too costly, got a further boost on
Friday when the EBRD said it would fund at least 10 percent of the project.
"We want to finance the Baku-Ceyhan project and are ready to fund $300 million
before the end of 2002," Thomas Moser, the head of European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development in the Azeri capital Baku told Reuters.
A BP-led consortium plans to start building the $2.9 billion, 1,730 km (1,075 mile)
oil pipeline in July and complete it by 2005.
The link will carry up to one million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, mainly
from Azerbaijan's giant offshore fields operated by BP, to Turkey's southern coast.
Between 20 and 30 percent of the cost will be financed by the BP consortium in
cash, the rest borrowed from international financial institutions.
The U.S.-backed pipeline project was masterminded by Turkey in the early 1990s to
bypass its already busy Bosphorus straits, the only outlet at present for Russian
and Caspian oil transported via the Black Sea.
The BP-led group earlier this year decided to build the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline along
the same channel as a gas pipeline to Turkey from a huge offshore gas field in
Azerbaijan, also operated by BP.
Moser said Western banks were ready to provide both pipeline projects with up to $2
billion but declined to name other potential lenders.
Turkish officials have said the U.S. Eximbank, Japan Eximbank and the International
Finance Corporation (IFC) were among those interested in
providing financing for the project.
The EBRD has lent $350 million to the Azeri economy and has invested another $265
million in Caspian Sea oil projects.
______
/13:37 04.06.2002/ India and Kazakhstan discuss gas and oil pipeline development
Alma-Ata, June 4, 2002. (CNA). India began discussions on the development of
Kazakhstan's oil and gas fields and the possibility of laying a pipeline through
the vast Central Asian nation during a meeting of the two nations' leaders on
Monday.
"India is prepared to make a major investment in the oil and gas sector in
Kazakhstan, as we did last year in the Sakhalin field of Russia," Indian Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said.
Exploration and development of Kazakhstan's oil and gas resources in Kurmangazy in
the Caspian Sea area, Alibekmol and Darkhan were discussed during Vajpayee's
meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The meeting was overshadowed by the fear of war between nuclear-armed Pakistan and
India, and conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, all of which sent
representatives to the summit.
"India in a few years is going to become one of the largest suppliers of natural
gas and will be looking for a market" and ways to deliver its product, India's
deputy foreign minister, Omar Abdullah, told reporters after the leaders met.
In the past, India has discussed the idea of a pipeline that would cross Pakistan,
with whom it has fought three wars in the 55 years since both became independent
from Britain.
India has also held talks on the proposed pipeline with Iran, through which it
could pass to reach Kazakhstan, Iran's neighbor on the Caspian Sea.
Vajpayee and Nazarbayev also talked about India contributing its expertise to help
Kazakhstan build a software technology park near the southern business hub in
Almaty, and develop small-scale industries, such as in food production, Associated
press reports.
______
/13:26 31.05.2002/ Russian and Kazakh Prime Ministers discussed cooperation in
energy and fuel sphere
Moscow, May 31, 2002. (CNA). Today, in Moscow, Russia's Prime Minister Mikhail
Kasyanov held a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Imangali Tasmagambetov.
During the meetingThey discussed the current bilateral trade and economic
cooperation and prospects for its development and paid special attention to
cooperation in the fuel and energy sphere.
Kazakhstan's prime minister took part in a session of the CIS prime ministers that
was held in Moscow on Thursday, RIA Novosti reports.
______
/13:15 31.05.2002/ Azeri officials surprised by Lukoil's refusal to fund
Baku-Ceyhan
Baku, May 31, 2002. (CNA). Russian oil company LUKoil may have refused to take part
in construction of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline because its bid for Azerbaijan's 10 per
cent of the Sah Daniz gas field was rejected, First Vice-President of the State Oil
Company of the Azerbaijani Republic SOCAR Ilham Aliyev has said. Other companies
were willing to take part in this project, including France's TotalFinaElf but
SOCAR has not entered into any talks on this issue because Azerbaijan is not going
to sell its share, Aliyev said. Aliyev dismissed as rumours the press reports
suggesting that LUKoil had declined to participate because of pressure from Viktor
Kalyuzhnyy, Russian deputy foreign minister and the special envoy of Russian
President Vladimir Putin on Caspian Sea affairs, and Russian Deputy Premier Viktor
Khristenko. "We have also heard that Putin receives somewhat partial information on
this issue, but we do not know exactly what it is," Aliyev said. Another reason why
LUKoi!
l's refusal is
surprising is that this could create serious problems for the company itself, when
oil from the Azeri and Ciraq oil fields will be transported via the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, Aliyev said. LUKoil could transport its oil via the
Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, but then its expenditure is going to be four or five
times higher.
As for the conditions for LUKoil's participation in developing the Araz-Alov-Sarq
oil field, over which Azerbaijan and Iran are in dispute,
Aliyev said that LUKoil was willing to take part in this project but there were no
talks on its specific share, Sarq reports.
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