SANGACHAL - The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is of vital importance for regional stability and economic development, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said on Wednesday.
First oil into the BTC main export pipeline was pumped in a ceremony held in the Sangachal Terminal near Azerbaijani capital of Baku today.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev also participated in the ceremony.
Making a keynote speech in the ceremony, Sezer said that this pipeline would assure security of energy distribution and reduce burden on Turkish Straits.
Turkey aimed at becoming a reliable energy corridor and turn Ceyhan Terminal into a trade and export center of energy with this pipeline, Sezer stated.
Sezer stressed that this pipeline would become more fruitful when Kazakhstan also joined the project.
-NATURAL GAS PIPELINE-
President Sezer expressed hope that the Shah Deniz Natural Gas Pipeline Project from Baku to Erzurum via Tbilisi would be activated at the end of 2006.
Recalling that construction of Turkey-Greece-Italy natural gas pipeline and Nabucco natural gas pipeline continued to transport Caspian basis gas resources to European markets, Sezer said, ''Turkey is one of the four main routes for transportation of natural gas to the European Union, together with Russia, Norway and Algeria. Also, Turkey aims at transporting these natural gas resources to the United States with the liquefied natural gas terminal it plans to build at Ceyhan Terminal.''
-RAILWAY PROJECT-
On the other hand, Sezer said that another important project was the construction of an uninterrupted railway between the East and the West, which was Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway project.
''This railway will not only connect Turkey with South Caucasus and Central Asia but also revive the historical Silk Road in the 21st century,'' said Sezer.
Sezer also stressed, ''Turkey is ready to contribute to every project which aims to assure common prosperity of regional nations thanks to its location connecting the Caspian with the Mediterranean and Black Sea with the Middle East.''
-PARTICIPATION OF KAZAKHSTAN IN BTC PROJECT-
After the remarks, a signature ceremony was held for participation of Kazakhstan in the BTC pipeline.
Later, Sezer, Saakashvili and Aliyev signed an agreement on construction of Kars (Turkey)-Akhaltsikhe (Georgia)-Baku (Azerbaijan) railway.