11/10/02wsj--Companies
To Raise Own Financing For Caspian Gas Pipeline
BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Financing for a $1 billion
pipeline to export gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey will be
raised by each individual company involved in the project and
not through borrowing by the BP-led (BP) consortium operating
the field, a senior Azerbaijani official said Thursday.
"The companies involved won't be clubbing together to
borrow money to pay for the construction of the gas
pipeline," the head of Azerbaijan's Oil Fund, Samir
Sharifov, told Dow Jones Newswires.
The financing differs from the $3 billion oil pipeline project
from Baku to Turkey's port of Ceyhan also led by BP. That oil
pipeline is being paid for by a consortium set up to run the
pipeline, as well as by contributions from the Turkish
government and debt raised from multilateral lending agencies.
"Azerbaijan's state oil company Socar will finance its
share in the gas pipeline with internal company
resources," Sharifov said, but didn't elaborate.
Construction of the South Caucasus gas pipeline from the giant
offshore Shah Deniz gas field is expected to start next year
with first exports of 2 billion cubic meters a year to reach
Turkey in 2006, increasing later to 6.6 bcm/year.
Shareholders in the Shah Deniz consortium include: BP PLC and
Norway's Statoil (STO) with 25.5% each; Socar, NIKO (T.NKO), TotalFinaElf
(TOT) and a joint venture between Lukoil (R.LKO) and
Agip (I.AGI) with 10% each and Turkey's TPAO with 9%.
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