BANKS BACK 1,100 MILE BP PIPELINE
Insiders at the company are confident that an agreement with a consortium of 15 banks led by ABN Amro, Societe Generale, Citibank and Japan's Mizuho, will be signed 'by the end of the month'.
The strategically important pipeline through one of the most politically unstable regions in the world will carry one million barrels of crude a day from Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The project, managed by BP on behalf of a group of international oil companies, has been criticized by environmentalists, human rights activists and even some institutional investors.
The cost of the 1,100-mile pipeline is just under Ј1.6bn. BP and its partners are putting in 30% of the money. The rest will come in loans from banks and government-backed agencies.
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