Construction of the Turkish section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline goes on strictly to schedule and by the year-end the first tanker with the Azerbaijan’s oil will be shipped from the port of Ceyhan, BTC Co told Trend.
At present the oil pumped in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline reaches the borders of Georgia and will cross it shortly, during the nearest days. В"During the two months there will be a complete oil filling of the entire Georgian section”, BTC Co pointed out.
The sources, close to Turkish contractors told Trend, the Turkish section is currently completed by over 95%. В"By the time the oil reaches the Georgian-Turkish border we will have everything nearly finished. As long as the oil reaches the terminal in Ceyhan, we will finish all the works in the country”, the sources said.
The Turkish newspaper В"Zaman” citing the government sources in Ankara reports, Turkey will not pay a penalty for delay in the BTC construction.
В"Delays in construction of the BTC Turkish section are taken by the international Consortium members with understanding, and no sanctions towards Turkey will be raised in this regard”, the newspaper points out. Under the Agreement on the BTC project implementation Turkey committed itself to pay $500,000 for each day of the delay to the participants of the Consortium and the total amount of delays must not exceed 240 days.
The experts of the Azerbaijan Oil Industry told Trend, the shareholders of the BTC project cannot take with understanding delays in the oil pipeline construction in Turkey. В"Each day of the pipeline’s operation delay will affect negatively both the commercial part of the project and its further attractiveness”, experts said.