----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2000 12:17 PM Subject: [STOPNATO] NATO's Balkans Outposts: U.S.'s Gateway To The Caspian STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM http://www.albaniannews.com Albanian Daily News July 1, 2000 AMBO Corporation to Start Fund Raising Within Days SOFIA - The New York-registered Albanian, Macedonian and Bulgarian Oil Corporation (AMBO Corporation), set up to construct a trans-Balkan oil pipeline linking the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Bourgas with Albanias Adriatic port of Vlora, will start raising funds as of the beginning of July, the companys vice-president, Gligor Taskovic, has announced. Leading oil companies such as Mobil, BP Amoco, Agip, Chevron and Texaco have already expressed interest in the project, said AMBO president Ted Ferguson, who went to Sofia at the end of May to meet government representatives. In Fergusons opinion the pipeline can be completed by the end of 2004 or in 2005. The pipeline will be 900 kilometers long and have an annual capacity of 35 million tons of oil. According to estimates, the facility will cost about 1.130 billion dollars, 450 million dollars of which will be raised from company shares and 600 million dollars provided through bank credits. Talks have already been held with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the International Financial Corporation (IFC), the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and EXIM, company sources said. A Regional Development Ministry export council has considered AMBOs preliminary survey in order to become acquainted with the basic facts. The corporation assigned its execution to four consulting companies - the major one of which is Brown & Root. The legal analysis was undertaken by CS First Boston, while the political one, by Richard Armtrige. At the time, regional development minister Evgeni Chachev said that first a choice must be made between this project and the alternative one of a pipeline linking Bourgas with the Greek port of Alexandropoulis. In Minister Chachevs opinion both projects are important and it is up to the investors to decide which will start first. Recently, the Bourgas-Alexandropoulis project seems to have been slightly forgotten. In 1998, Greece received more than two million euros from the European Union for feasibility studies. Still, only the first stage of the studies has been carried out while the second phase is currently under preparation. At the same time, the USA has promised support to Baku-Ceyhan as an alternative to the route passing through Russia. The truth is that the Caspian Oil Pipeline Consortium has not made the final choice as to which of the possible routes it would use to transport oil to the European markets. The agreement for Baku-Ceyhan is more of a political act and oil companies feel nervous about it, being unaccustomed to such strong pressure, experts commented. Analyses show that this pipeline will cost about three billion dollars and would render oil supplies more expensive. It is convenient for carrying the oil extracted in the Southern Caspian (especially Azerbaijan) but would prove to be unprofitable for oil carried from Kazakhstan. The overall oil deposits in the Caspian Sea are estimated at 200 billion barrels. The construction of an oil pipeline from the Kazakh oil deposit at Tengiz to the Russian port of Novorosiisk must be completed in 2002. Recently, Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev, agreed on transporting Caspian oil through Russia to Novorosiisk. AMBOs biggest advantage is that 300,000-ton super tankers can enter Vlora port, which would make transport cheaper. The decision as to where the oil would be directed to after that is up to the oil companies. Moreover, Vlora is on the way for tankers going to the oil ports of Trieste and Rijeka, while Alexandropoulis is somewhat out of the way. Another of the AMBO projects advantages is the support it receives from the US administration, which has granted funds for the feasibility studies. If the big oil companies confirm their interest in the project this would be another big plus. The idea is for AMBO to become a holding structure with the participation of several big oil companies operating in the region of the Caspian Sea. The holding will register companies in the three countries under local laws. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Kick off your party with Yahoo! Invites. http://invites.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
