The new price tag for BTC could reach as high as US$4 billion, say reports in Interfax and Agence France-Presse.
Socar president Natik Aliyev said overall project costs were supposed to be US$3.6 billion; allowing for US$200 million to pay for oil and other expenses.
“Now we think those expenses will rise by US$300 million-US$350 million but we want to allow for other costs as well, and think overall project costs will rise to US$4 billion,” Aliyev was reported as saying by Interfax.
“Construction has fallen behind schedule. Talks between governments and banks are protracted, and the noise created by non-governmental organisations has taken its toll. Construction firms have been forced to idle, and the dollar has weakened. We made all our cost estimates in dollars, and a lot of equipment has been purchased in Europe.”
But at least the pipeline is almost complete.
“We expect the Azerbaijani section to be launched in January and the Georgian section in March. Turkey assures us that its section will be ready by the end of March, although BTC shareholders are a little pessimistic,” he said.
The 1,767 kilometre-long pipeline stretches through three countries – Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, with the bulk of its length in Turkey. It will have a capacity of 50 million tonnes of oil a year.
Interests in the project include BP 30.1%, SOCAR 25%, Unocal 8.9%, Statoil 8.71%, TPAO 6.53%, ENI 5%, Total 5%, Itochu 3.4%, ConocoPhillips 2.5%, Inpex 2.5% and Amerada Hess 2.36%.
