Fuel and Energy Development Minister Majid Karimov of Azerbaijan, CERA Chairman Joseph Stanislav, DEIK Executive Board member Nihat Gokyigit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Undersecretary Alev Kilic, U.S. President George W. Bush’s Senior Advisor for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy Steven Mann and Iranian Special Representative Mahdi Safari are attending the 2-day conference.
Sending a message to the conference, President Sezer said, ”I believe that the conference will create an appropriate ground to discuss new opportunities and risks emerged in a vast geography including the Middle East, the Russian Federation and Caspian regions under the light of recent developments in the world energy markets.”
Referring to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project, one of the most significant energy projects in the world, President Sezer noted, ”the first tanker to carry the Caspian oil is planned to be loaded in Ceyhan in the second half of 2005. The project will make an important
contribution to the security of environment and transportation both in the Black Sea and in the Turkish Straits by reducing the annual transportation by 50 million tons. Meanwhile, it is one of our targets of priority to add Kazakhstan into the project.”
”As you know, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline project is the second important part of the Easter-Western Energy Corridor. The project to transport Azerbaijani natural gas to Turkey is expected to be finalized in the fall of 2006. The project will constitute the first leg of Caspian-Turkey-Europe energy route,” President Sezer added.