Armenia to have problems when 50 mln tons of oil run through BTCNovember 24, 2008 - 13:20 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Some 26 million tons of oil were pumped through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline during the period from January to September 2008. It was mostly Azeri oil with 5-6 tons from Kazakhstan which can help secure rated capacity of 50 mln tons, a Kazakh expert said. "Kazakhstan's export can't exceed 10 mln tons yet. However, pumping in Tengiz oil field started in October gave additional 5 mln tons per year. The situation is as follows: construction of exporting pipelines exceeded the output volume, originating struggle for re-distribution of volumes," Marat Shibutov, member of Association of frontier cooperation, told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. Now, Azerbaijan should try to gain Tengiz's 10 mln tons increment for the BTC to bring the pumping volume to 40 mln tons. Otherwise the project is doomed to failure, according to him. "As to Armenia, it will have problems when 50 mln tons of oil run through the BTC. Azerbaijan will grow stronger. At that, Europe and U.S. will appreciate an independent oil supplier. Furthermore, three of Armenia's four neighbors - Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia have common economic interests and a joint project. Deployment of international forces to guard the pipeline is not ruled out. Under the circumstances, an armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is impossible and is equal to suicide for Armenia. If Turkey decides to help Azerbaijan by attacking Armenia from the west, the results will be deplorable," Shibutov said. Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | IDBank, Dalma team up for Caucasian Deer Reintroduction Program IDBank has joined Dalma Garden Mall’s Green Challenge to support the Caucasian red deer reintroduction project. Through Ucom’s support the 12th Sunchild Festival concludes On May 24-28, with the support of Ucom, the 12th international environmental festival Sunchild took place in Yerevan. U.S., Turkey emphasize importance of Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal Jake Sullivan and Akif Cagatay Kilic have discussed the normalization process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia coach expects good football in Slovenia friendly The Armenian national team has left for Ljubljana a friendly match against Slovenia on June 4. |