ANKARA - President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said on Tuesday that energy strategy which had been developed under the leadership of Azerbaijani President Haydar Aliyev since 1994 and which foresaw to transport Azerbaijani natural gas and oil via Turkey to western markets started to yield its results.
Presidential Press Center said in a statement that President Sezer issued a message on the occasion of 10th anniversary of Caspian International Oil and Natural Gas Exhibition and Conference organized in Azerbaijani capital Baku.
Sezer said in his message that he congratulated Aliyev and all Azerbaijani people due to 10th anniversary of exhibition and conference and stated that construction level started in Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project which was an important leg of East-West Energy Corridor and installation of pipelines began in all three countries. He added that the first tanker which would carry Caspian oil was foreseen to be loaded in Ceyhan in the first half of 2005.
Stating that studies regarding Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline project which was the second leg of the East-West Energy Corridor were progressing within the scope of the timetable, Sezer said that Azerbaijani natural gas was planned to reach Turkey in the third quarter of 2006.
President Sezer said that determined and farsighted policies of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and the United States and bold steps of companies which participated in projects played significant role in improvement of those projects and noted that Turkey was working cooperatively with Azerbaijan both in putting practice of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline projects and in development of Azeri-Cirak-Gunesli and Shah Sea areas which would provide projects with sources.
(EÖ-AY) 03.06.2003