From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Thu Jun 06 2002 - 12:59:41 EDT
CASPIAN NEWS AGENCY
CNA all-inclusive newsline
/14:50 06.06.2002/ Bush praises Baku-Ceyhan route for Caspian energy
Baku, June 6, 2002. (CNA). The US President George W. Bush reaffirmed Washington's
strong support for the strategic oil and gas pipelines intended to carry rich
Caspian Sea energy resources to global markets via Georgia and Turkey in a letter
released Tuesday. "Great progress has been made over the past year toward realizing
our shared goal of an east-west corridor to transport Azeri and other Caspian oil
and gas to global markets," Bush said in a letter to Azeri President Haidar Aliyev
welcoming an international energy conference in Baku.
The United States has long supported their construction as part of its efforts to
secure alternative routes for oil and gas exports, limiting the sway of Russia and
Iran.
"I'm particularly pleased that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline continues to
advance toward construction, to be followed by the South Caucasus Gas pipeline,"
Bush said in the letter, read by Steven Mann, the US envoy to the Caspian region.
"These projects will promote prosperity, peace and stability in the Caucasus and
make an essential contribution to better integrating Azerbaijan, Georgia and other
countries in the region into the global economy," Bush said.
The pipeline had already received a boost Friday from the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, which offered $ 300 million for at least 10 percent
of the project, the Associated press says.
______
/14:46 06.06.2002/ Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan intend to continue cooperation on
border issues Jine 15
Astana, June 6, 2002. (CNA). The Kazakh First Deputy Foreign Minister Yerlan
Idrisov has told journalists that a relevant agreement was reached at a meeting of
the heads of the Kazakh and Uzbek governments, Imangali Tasmagambetov and Otkir
Sultonov, in Almaty on 4 June.
Idrisov has said that they exchanged views on the implementation of agreements that
were reached previously on border issues.
He said that both prime ministers agreed to instruct government delegations
involved in the border delimitation process to speed up this work.
______
/14:44 06.06.2002/ New parliamentary faction created in Georgia
Tbilisi, June 6, 2002. (CNA). A new parliamentary faction - the Democrats -is
formed in Georgia by Zurab Zhvania and his team. At today's briefing the former
Speaker of the Georgian parliament Zurab Zhvania stated that the name of the
faction will be changed for the new political movement will be formed in the
nearest future and the faction will have the same name as the movement.
Zhvania said at the briefing that the new Parliamentary group will closely
cooperate with Mikheil Saakashvili's Movement for Democratic Reforms and the
Traditionalists factions.
The new faction unites 21 MPs from the Citizens' Union of Georgia (CUG) faction.
Giorgi Baramidze chairs the faction. Zurab Tskitishvili and Vasil Maghlaperidze are
the Deputy Chairman, Marina Molodini is the Secretary of the Democrats faction.
New Parliamentary group is the fifth, which separated from the former Parliamentary
majority - CUG.
______
/14:11 06.06.2002/ Kazakh Embassy denies reports on 'Kurdish propaganda'
Ankara, June 6, 2002. (CNA). The Kazakh Embassy has made a statement denying the
news reports claiming that in a graduation ceremony Kurdish marches were played,
placards were opened and that the photo of the terrorist chieftain was placed on
the diplomas.
Turkish Daily News reports that the issue was also raised by President Ahmet Necdet
Sezer, who visited the Kazakh capital Almaty to attend the summit of the
"Cooperation and Confidence Building Measures in Asia Conference."
Sezer expressed uneasiness over the issue during a meeting with the Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as well.
The statement of the Kazakh Embassy came just after Sezer's meeting with
Nazarbayev.
The statement of the Kazakh Embassy said that the head of the Kurds Association of
South Kazakhstan state Abdi Ahmedov participated at the graduation ceremony of the
school of Baydibek village on May 25.
During the ceremony, Ahmedov made a speech drawing attention to the international
friendship and the education of the students, according to the written statement of
the Kazakhstan Embassy.
According to the declaration of the Embassy, South Kazakhstan Kurds Association
raised their demand for presenting letters of appreciation to the Kurdish-origined
students to the school administration.
It also emphasized that the State Governorate of the South Kazakhstan warned
Ahmedov because of an interview he gave to the KTK TV Channel, pointing out that he
was told that provocative statements are unbearable.
The Kazakh Embassy statement read that Turkey's territorial integrity and
indivisibility were among the basic policies of Kazakhstan.
"The determination of the Kazakhstan Republic Government does not leave any space
for any doubt," the statement said.
______
/13:54 06.06.2002/ BP and its partners plan USD 2.9 bln pipeline through Turkey
Baku, June 6, 2002. (CNA). The British Petroleum and its partners agreed to build a
USD 2.9 billion pipeline across Turkey to move Caspian Sea oil to world markets,
ending more than eight years of debate.
The partners, which include Eni SpA of Italy, Statoil ASA of Norway and Unocal
Corp. of the U.S., have completed all the agreements to start construction and will
make a final decision later this month, project director Philip Allison said at a
conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The 1,090-mile line, the longest and most expensive of three possible routes, will
link fields containing as much as 40 billion barrels of oil with the Mediterranean
Sea port of Ceyhan. The U.S. backed the Ceyhan route to avoid sending crude through
Iran. Turkey opposed a competing pipeline through Russia to the Black Sea, which
would increase tanker traffic in the Bosporus strait, Bloomberg reports.
``It's a major construction exercise, and it's the biggest pipeline BP has ever
built,'' Allison said.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of next year and be
completed in 2004, he said. The pipeline will have the capacity to carry about 1
million barrels of oil a day.
BP is also leading a group of investors that plans to spend $13 billion to develop
three oil fields in Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian Sea.
The group has increased its estimate of the fields' reserves by 15 percent to 5.3
billion barrels, said David Woodward, president of Azerbaijan International
Operating Co. Output is forecast to rise to 800,000 barrels a day by 2008, from the
current 120,00 barrels a day.
______
/13:45 06.06.2002/ Armenia Foreign Minister met with EU top officials
Yerevan, June 6, 2002. (CNA). Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian met in
Brussles with Chris Paten, the Commissar on Foreign Affairs of
the European Commission to discuss Armenia-European Union bilateral relations. CNA
was informed that preparations for a sitting of the Cooperation Council, further
development of information technologies, Armenia's energy security, trade between
Armenia and the European Union, regional cooperation and sollution of the Karabakh
conflict as well as the situation in the region were the topics touched upon during
the meeting.
According to the Public Relations Department of the Armenian Foreign Ministry on
June 4 the Minister Oskanian also met with Javier Solana, the Secretary General of
the EU Council. The sides were focused on the process of settlement of the Karabakh
conflict, regional processes, relations between Armenia and Turkey.
______
/13:24 06.06.2002/ ExxonMobil to quit Azeri project due to lack of oil
Baku, June 6, 2002. (CNA). The International oil major ExxonMobil said on Wednesday
it planned to close one of its offshore oil projects in Azerbaijan next year
because it had failed to find enough oil.
The ExxonMobil move follows a number of recent failures by rivals such
as TotalFinaElf or Agip to discover oil in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea,
which some experts say contains less oil than officially estimated.
A spokeswoman for ExxonMobil in Azerbaijan said the firm would abandon in 2003 its
production sharing agreement with the Azeri state oil firm
SOCAR over the Oguz oil block, after an exploration well drilled in 2001 failed to
discover big volumes of oil or gas.
"The exploration period on Oguz expires in 2003 and we do not intend to extend this
contract after we failed to discover commercially viable reserves," Nikki Kazimova
told Reuters.
She said ExxonMobil was due to drill one well on Oguz under the agreement with
SOCAR and did not intend to drill a second well despite SOCAR's proposal to extend
the exploration period.
"We will wait until the agreement expires to officially close the project," she
said. However, Kazimova said ExxonMobil was still committed to other projects in
Azerbaijan as the firm participates in five different production sharing
agreements.
"ExxonMobil have already invested more than $1 billion in Azerbaijan, which shows
that this is a strategic region for us," she said.
Azerbaijan has signed 21 production sharing agreements worth $60 billion with
international oil firms over the past decade. The failure of Oguz reduces the
number of projects still in place to 15. They are worth some $48 billion.
Only one offshore project in Azerbaijan is producing oil so far, from
Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil fields developped by an international consortium led by
BP. Oguz was one of the closest blocks to this area.
______
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