RUSSIA REACHES FOR MORE CASPIAN OIL.

A Russian Foreign Ministry official claimed yesterday that the European Union supports a project to route future oil from Kazakhstan’s giant Tengiz field on the Caspian Sea to Russia, on its way to Western markets. The Russian official claimed that the E.U. is also prepared to partially finance the construction of a pipeline from Tengiz to a Russian port on the Black Sea, and that the EU also wants the oil to bypass Turkey by having it pumped through the Burgas-Alexandropoulis pipeline. Also yesterday, a Turkish delegation of experts completed talks with Russian counteparts in Moscow on transportation of future Caspian oil. The Turks proposed a pipeline from Tengiz across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and on via Georgia to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. (21)

A Caspian Pipeline Consortium was formed in 1992 by Russia, Kazakhstan, and Oman to build a pipeline from Tengiz to a Russian port on the Black Sea. The consortium has not managed to come up with the necessary capital. The U.S. Chevron Oil company has substantially invested in the Tengiz field itself but not until now in the planned pipeline. The latter’s projected throughput capacity of 72 million tons annually would enable Russia to control a considerable share of Kazakhstan’s oil exports.

1. Itar-Tass, Russian TV, October 24

2. Itar-Tass, October 24

3. Russian TV, October 23

4. Interfax, October 23

5. Izvestiya, October 22

6. Izvestiya, October 23

7. Interfax, October 23

8. Izvestiya, October 25

9. Itar-Tass, October 24

10. Itar-Tass, October 24

11. Itar-Tass, October 24

12. Izvestiya, October 24

13. Trud, October 21

14. Interfax, October 24

15. Itar-Tass, October 24

16. Flux and Basapress, October 24

17. Noyan-Tapan, October 24

18. Interfax, October 24

19. Russian TV, Interfax, October 23

20. Interfax, October 24

21. Petroleum Information Agency, October 24

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