ANKARA - Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler said on Tuesday that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline (BTC) project was continuing very successfully, adding, ''there is not any problem and the project will be concluded in time.''
The eighth of the Third Country Training Program organized jointly by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Mineral Exploration and Researches (MTA) Directorate General started.
Speaking at a program on ''Exploration and Utilization of Underground Resources'', Guler said that they hoped that they would carry out some other projects also with Japan, and they could carry out joint work especially on energy, irrigation, coal, dams and boron.
Noting that they wanted to enrich boron technology through new projects with private sector, Guler said they could also make joint investments in boron with Japan.
Stressing that they preferred coal and hydraulic power plants for energy, Guler said that they were trying to form a new energy balance by focusing on hydrogen, geothermal and solar energy by using boron mineral including nuclear energy.
Replying a question about BTC project after the program, Guler said, ''the project is under way very successfully. There were two problems such as taxation and appointment of staff. We solved them. Now, there is not any problem and the project will be completed in time.''
Nineteen geologists from Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tajikistan and Ukraine are participating in the training program which will last one month.
(MS-AÖ) 06.05.2003