December 20, 2001	Thursday	Shawwal 4, 1422

BAKU, Dec 19: International lenders have “expressed keenness” to provide capital for the planned Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, a senior executive with the pipeline consortium has said.

Michael Townshend, BTC general manager, said late Tuesday that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation had been approached about providing credits.

“The initial contacts we have had have been encouraging,” Townshend told reporters. “They are keen to work with us and provide finance for the project based on initial discussions.”

“We have also been in touch with European, US and Japanese export credit agencies and they have also expressed their keenness to take part in the project,” he said.

International lending institutions will be asked to put up 70 per cent of the capital for the 2.875 billion dollar (3.187 billion euro) pipeline, with the rest provided by shareholders.

Townshend said the consortium “anticipated” that lenders would ask for an interest rate of about 15 per cent on loans for the pipeline.

He also dropped a heavy hint that US oil major ChevronTexaco, currently in talks about becoming a BTC shareholder, could take up to a 20 per cent stake.—AFP