BAKU - The process of realization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude oil pipeline project which will carry Azerbaijani oil to western markets will start on Wednesday.
Foundation of the project which will be put into practice with cooperation of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia and oil companies like British Petroleum (BP), Azerbaijani state-run oil company SOCAR, American Unocal, Norwegian Statoil and Turkish Petroleum Corp (TPAO) will be laid in a ceremony that will be held at Sengechal Terminal that is 40 kilometers from Baku.
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Azerbaijani President Haydar Aliyev and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze will attend the foundation-laying ceremony of the BTC pipeline which will be 1,760 kilometers in total length.
During the ceremony, Sezer, Aliyev and Shevardnadze will lay the first pipe of the BTC pipeline and bury a ''time capsule'' which includes a document with the headline ''to next generations''.
State Minister Resat Dogru, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Zeki Cakan, U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and representatives of companies which have shares in the BTC main export pipeline will also be in attendance at the ceremony.
BTC project foresees a total of 2.95 billion U.S. dollars of investment and construction of the project is estimated to last thirty months.
According to the project, construction will start in first half of 2003 and finish at the end of 2004 and oil will start flowing through the pipeline in 2005 spring.
BP has 38. 21 percent, SOCAR has 25.00 percent, Statoil has percent 9.58 percent, Unocal has 8.90 percent, TPAO has 7.55 percent, Eni has 5 percent, Itochu has 3.40 percent, Amerada Hess has 2.36 percent and Total Final Elf has 5 percent share in BTC Company.