No outside forces to guard BTC, official says

Baku Today 27/04/2005 00:06

No outside forces will be involved in guarding the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, as Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey have assumed this task, Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov told a meeting of the intergovernmental commission on the BTC pipeline project in Baku on Tuesday.

The US State Department envoy on Caspian energy diplomacy Steven Mann said the United States is ready to assist in safeguarding the BTC pipe. This will not be military assistance, he said, according to Assa Irada.

�The pipeline is to be guarded by regional countries. But if their governments appeal to us, we are ready to provide counsel, hold the needed training for these countries and support them,� he said.

Mann added that there are no problems with talks over Kazakhstan�s joining the BTC project.

Sharifov reiterated that BTC construction is close to completion and oil to be transported through the pipeline will be loaded to tankers from the Ceyhan port of Turkey late in the 3rd quarter � early 4th quarter of 2005.

http://www.whisprwave.com/oil-pipeline-security.htm