BP To Receive $500 Million From World Bank For Trans Caucasus Pipeline

BP may receive as much as half a billion dollars from the World Bank in order to expand oil output in Azerbaijan and build an eleven hundred mile trans Caucasus pipeline. The loan would boost a US goal of keeping the oil away from Iran, which the State Department says is a sponsor of terrorism.

The International Finance Corporation, a World Bank unit that lends to companies, may back the $2.9 billion pipeline, which would stretch from Azerbaijan's capital to Turkey, within the next year, an official said.

The Washington based lender unveiled the project to banks such as ABN Amro and Deutsche Bank at a recent seminar.

“We're actively engaged in due diligence,” Rashad Kaldany, the Finance Corporation's director of oil and gas projects, said of the project, which would be the biggest in the lender's portfolio. “There are some real business risks, but we want to do this right.”

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