It is known that the prime cost of the Azerbaijani rude oil will be 6 times more than that of Iraq. At the same time, $3,5 billion is necessary for implementation of the “Baku-Jeyhan” project, while there is already an oil pipeline from Iraq to Jeyhan and only the economic sanctions imposed on Bagdad are impeding its exploitation.
The director of the Turkish project of the Washington Centre of Strategic and International Researches Byulent Alirza told recently in an interview with the “Associated Press” that there were no proofs of the commercial expediency of the Baku-Jeyhan project. “It is a miracle that the project has not “failed” under the burden of the political and economic estimates,” Turkish expert believes. “If Iraq liberates from the regime of Saddam Husseyn, it will lead to the changes of the energy map of the world. And then the issue whether it’s better to transport the Iraq oil at a $1 for a barrel or the Azerbaijani one at $6,75, will raise,” Byulent Alirza says. Commenting on the statements of the Turkish expert, the “Echo” newspaper concludes that Saddam Husseyn is the guarantee of the expediency of the “Baku-Jeyhan” project and the longer his regime is maintained, the more are the chances for the “project of the century” to be implemented.
Many in Baku agree with this opinion. For example, the famous economist Zaid Mamedov believes that even if Washington is interested in maintaining the partnership with Azerbaijan and Turkey, “the USA may really give up their political interests for economic profits, if there are such after the settlement of the Iraq problem”. The co-chairman of the social-democratic party of Azerbaijan Zardusht Alizade is more pessimistic in this issue: “I have always been against the “Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan” project and stated that it is economically inexpedient,” Alizade said. His forecast is clear: “When Saddam Husseyn will be removed, the prices for oil will essentially decline. After the Iraq war is finished, the OPEC will not be able to regulate the oil market that will be collapsed and the “Baku-Jeyhan” project will automatically fail”.
So, it is evident that even in Azerbaijan and Turkey few people believe in the myth about the giant perspectives of the ”Baku-Jeyhan” project. Nothing to say about the western financial institutions to which the initiators of the ”big bluff” apply searching money for the construction of the oil pipeline.
