A new oil pipeline linking Azerbaijan with Turkey could see the European Union (EU) reduce its Russian oil imports by up to a quarter by the end of the decade, said an expert from the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Thursday.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) line, which started pumping light crude oil on Wednesday is set to hit its full capacity of 1 million barrels a day by 2008.

At the moment, the EU imports some 4 million barrels a day from Russia.

"It is possible that Europe's Russian imports could go down by a proportionate amount", IEA oil expert David Fyfe told online newsletter EUobserver on Thursday.

Greece, Italy, France and Spain, as well as Turkey, would be " the most obvious initial markets" for the new BTC output, said Fyfe.

"In an era when oil costs 40-50 dollars a barrel, many governments might see geographical diversification in itself as quite a worthy objective," he added.

Russian oil accounted for 15 percent of the French oil imports last year while levels stood at 20 percent in Italy, 12 percent in Spain and 27 percent in Greece.

Source: Xinhua