STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Get a low APR NextCard Visa in 30 seconds! 1. Fill in the brief application 2. Receive approval decision within 30 seconds 3. Get rates as low as 2.99% Intro or 9.99% Ongoing APR and no annual fee! Apply NOW! http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/NextCard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Baku-Ceyhan route has been seen as being motivated more by political considerations than by commercial viability. The United States is pushing for east-to-west transportation routes that bypass both Russia and Iran." U.S. Funds Kazakhstan Study of Oil Pipeline ALMATY, Jun 11, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) The United States awarded Kazakhstan Monday a 346,000-dollar grant to examine ways of exporting the former Soviet state's crude oil via a U.S.-backed pipeline to Turkey. The grant, amounting to 407,000 euros, is for "the study of technical, economic, ecological aspects connected to the transportation of Kazakh oil to the Baku Ceyhan (pipeline route)," KazTransOil vice president Kairgeldy Kabyldin said. The grant, from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, will fund research into port facilities, port upgrades and requirements for barges to transport oil across the Caspian Sea, but will not be concerned with the laying of pipelines on the sea bed. "I'm pleased we are moving ahead with realizing the Aktau part of Aktau-Baku-Tbilsi-Ceyhan," project, said the new United States special advisor on Caspian energy issues, Stephen Mann, during a visit to the region. "At every stop on this trip I am seeing the type of cooperation between countries and companies that is going to make these projects a success. The pipelines have momentum and the pipelines will be built," he said. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev said in March he wanted to see oil being produced quickly from the potentially vast Kashagan offshore field in the west of the country to make use of the U.S.-backed pipeline which is expected to cost 2.8 billion dollars. Kabyldin said preliminary estimates had suggested that Kazakhstan could ship up to 20 million tons of oil a year to link up with the 1,700-kilometer (1,060-mile) route from Azerbaijan to Turkey. "A final decision of Kazakh participation in this project will be taken after a study of all technical and economic data and issues of this project," Kabyldin added. The Baku-Ceyhan route has been seen as being motivated more by political considerations than by commercial viability. The United States is pushing for east-to-west transportation routes that bypass both Russia and Iran. But the link has gained increasing momentum and a BP-led sponsor group said in May that it was moving into the next major stage of the project - to conduct a 150-million-dollar detailed engineering study of the route. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
