U.S. supports Kazakhstan's role in BTC oil pipeline system

The United States hoped Kazakhstan would join in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline system as soon as possible, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said on Tuesday, according to reports from Astana, capital of Kazakhstan.

Bodman told a news conference after meeting Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev that the U.S. considered Kazakhstan as a leading role in safeguarding security in global energy resource sector. Therefore, Kazakhstan should accelerate the establishment of energy infrastructure and expand energy transport routes.

He added that the United States hoped that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan could end the negotiation on allowing Kazakhstan to transport oil through BTC pipeline as soon as possible.

Bodman said that the United States planned to double its investment in Kazakhstan in the next five years. The United States, as the top investor of Kazakhstan, has invested a total of 11.4 billion U.S. dollars from 1993 to the first quarter of 2005.

The U.S.-backed BTC oil pipeline went into service in May 2005. The 1,770-km-long pipeline brought crude oil from Azerbaijan's southern Caspian offshore fields through Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan for shipment to world markets.

Source: Xinhua