ECONOMY
*ABOUT USD20 MILLION SPENT ON BTC PROJECT IN GEORGIA
About USD20 million has been spent on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) project in Georgia up to now, Georgy Chanturia, president of Georgian International Oil Corporation told journalists. He explained that about USD11.5 million lari (USD5.5 million) was spent on compensation for land lease, acquisition and loss of harvest for the BTC construction. That apart, about 400 thousand lari was spent on foodstuffs for the workers of the pipeline construction and about USD1 million was received by the state budget from the purchase of construction and inert material that the contractors purchase from the local market and so forth.
Mr Chanturia said that currently about 1600 have been employed on the construction of the Georgian section of the BTC, 80% of which are locals. About 45 km of the right of way for the pipeline has been prepared and 6 km of pipeline aligned for welding.
This pipeline spans a distance of 1767 km of which 443 km is in Azerbaijan, 248km in Georgia and 1076km in Turkey. Carrying capacity is 50 million tonnes of oil per year and construction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2004. Export of Azerbaijani oil from the port of Ceyhan (Turkey, Mediterranean Sea) should start from the second quarter of 2005. The cost of the project is USD2.95 billion.