Oil and Gas pipelines  in the ECO region considered

ECO Secretariat, Tehran, May 15, 2005

 

Press Release

   

 

            The issues related to the Oil and Gas pipelines in the ECO region were considered by the 4th High Level Expert Tasks Group (4th HLETG) Meeting on ECO Oil and Gas Pipeline Route(s) organized in Ceyhan Terminal of BOTAS, Turkey on 5-6 May 2005. The meeting was inaugurated by Ms.N. Acikalin, Head of the Department of Transit Petroleum Pipelines of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Turkey. Dr. S. Aleskerov, Director for Energy, Minerals and Environment of the ECO Secretariat, welcomed the participants on behalf of the ECO Secretary General.

 

            During the said meeting and the preceding it workshop, held on 4 May at the same venue, the participants from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Turkey exchanged their information and views on the existing and planned oil and gas pipelines in the ECO region as well as the latest figures of their respective countries’ oil and gas reserves, production, consumption, etc. The participants agreed further to exchange that kind of information, regularly, on the format to be circulated by the ECO Secretariat and placed on the ECO Web-site.

 

            The participating delegations reiterated the importance of ensuring a meaningful development of economic cooperation and providing land-locked oil and gas producing ECO Member countries with access to the World energy market as identified in Ashgabat Declaration (May 1997) and recommended that ECO might consider developing cooperation in the field of energy with relevant regional and international organizations as is required for promoting its energy projects, particularly related to exporting the region’s hydrocarbons to international markets.

 

            While the information on the collaboration of the ECO Secretariat with the World Bank on the regional energy trade promotion and a related upcoming workshop with a focus on power sector to be held in Tehran on 29-30 June 2005 was discussed, it was recommended that regional gas trade might be on of the future directions of that cooperation and the workshop could also deliberate on gas trade as part of energy trade.  

 

            It is expected that the outcomes of the subject event will be considered along with other issues by the upcoming 2nd ECO Ministerial Meeting on Energy/Petroleum, planned to be held late 2005/early 2006.

 

The host also arranged a technical visit to BOTAS Ceyhan Marine Terminal facilities, affiliated to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline project for the participants.

 

            

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