EUROPEAN BANK DOUBTS ECOLOGICAL SAFETY OF BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN OIL PIPELINE

PanARMENIAN.Net - One of the potential investors of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline - the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) - will resolve to allocate a $300-million credit for the project only after additional assessments of its ecological safety are made. This is mentioned in a report of the EBRD, which has received a petition grounding the ecological inexpedience of the project, "RusEnergy" reports. As the EBRD message notes, before summer the bank will arrange supplements to the "Evaluation of the social and ecological impact" of the project, after which the document will be publicly discussed for a period of 120 days. Only upon the completion of the term the Council of Directors of the bank will make a final decision on the loan. Having a projected carrying capacity of 50 million tons per year, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline is estimated to cost $2.9 billion. The construction works should finish in 2005, and the first supplies of Kazakhstan oil via Baku-Ceyhan route will not start before 2008.