EN
14 October 2002 - 14:38 AMT

IF US MANAGES TO OVERTHROW SADDAM HUSSEIN, NEED OF BAKU-JEYHAN OIL PIPELINE TO BE NO LONGER RELEVANT

If it is managed to overthrow Saddam Hussein as a result of the military activities in Iraq, then the cheap Iraqi oil will be available in world markets and the need of the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan oil pipeline construction will be no longer relevant. This has been stated by the director of the Turkish project of the Washington Center of Strategic and International Researches Bulent Alirzan in his interview with the “Associated Press” agency. According to him, the Baku-Jeyhan oil pipeline profitability should be reconsidered. “That is really a miracle that the project did not become “buried” because of all those political and economic calculations”, Alirzan stated. According to him, the final price of the raw Baku oil, received through Baku-Jeyhan oil pipeline, will possibly be six times as expensive as the Iraqi one and the delivery to West will take much longer. Alirzan noted that at present there is already an oil pipeline to transport oil to West through Jeyhan port. But the clause on economic sanctions against Iraq applies the oil from that oil pipeline. Successful military activities in Iraq might change everything, he thinks. “Then the issue what is more beneficial: to transport a barrel of Iraqi oil for a dollar or the Azeri one for 6.75 will arise”, the director of the Turkish project of the Washington Center of the Strategic and International Researches.