Kazakhstan joins U.S.-backed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline

Kazakhstan on Friday signed up to pump its oil through a U.S.-backed pipeline running from Azerbaijan to Turkey, the Kazakh Foreign ministry said.

Photo: Kazakhstan joins U.S.-backed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline

Under the deal signed by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliev, the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic will ship 25 million tons (27.5 short tons) of oil annually by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

The BTC pipeline, which opened in May 2005, allows the West to tap oil from the rich Caspian Sea fields, estimated to hold the world's third-largest reserves, bypassing Russia and Iran.

The Caspian's reserves are shared by Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

"The importance of this agreement is hard to overestimate," Nazarbayev said in televised remarks after signing the deal.

Kazakhstan currently exports most of its oil via Russia, but has been seeking to establish alternative routes.

In March, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman urged Kazakhstan to speed up talks on joining the 1,100-kilometer (680-mile) pipeline, which runs from the Azerbaijani port capital of Baku via Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry welcomed Kazakhstan's joining the BTC, saying in a statement it would "strengthen the East-West energy corridor" and help diversify energy sources and decrease the number of oil tankers passing through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles.

Last year, Kazakhstan and China completed the construction of a 962-kilometer (597-mile) pipeline that will carry 20 million tons of Kazakh oil each year to the energy-hungry Chinese market.

However, Kazakhstan also agreed with Russia earlier this year to expand the 1,510-kilometer (940-mile) pipeline that links oil fields in western Kazakhstan to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

Its capacity is expected to be increased from the current 23 million metric tons a year to 60 million metric tons. The pipeline is the main and most economically expedient transport route for oil from Kazakhstan's giant Tengiz oil field.

Kazakhstan possesses the largest oil deposits in the Caspian Sea. It produces about 1.3 million barrels a day. By 2015, its daily oil output is expected to reach 3 million barrels, reports AP.

O.Ch.