По новостям: Caspian Mediterranean oil pipeline

An oil consortium is to go ahead with a three-billion-dollar pipeline to link the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas

Репортаж корр. Би-би-си Клои Арнольд:

Speaking at the annual oil and gas show in the Azeri capital, Baku, the head of British Petroleum's operation in Azerbaijan, David Woodward, said the final decision on the proposed pipeline would be made in two weeks' time. British Petroleum is the major stakeholder in a consortium of oil companies funding the multi-billion-dollar project.

The pipeline will stretch almost two-thousand kilometres from Azerbaijan to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan via the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Mr Woodward said the go-ahead for construction would most likely be given in July, but project officials say there may be a delay of a few months before work on the pipeline begins. The pipeline will cost almost three-billion dollars and will export offshore oil from the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean.

It'll be the first major export route for Caspian oil which bypasses Russian territory. The pipeline has been strongly backed by the government of the United States, but officials in Moscow have said it's unlikely to be economical. The consortium expects the pipeline to be completed by the end of 2004.

• proposed: предложенный
• major stakeholder: основной держатель акций
• consortium: консорциум
• stretch: протянется
• go-ahead: сигнал к началу, старту
• offshore oil: нефть, которая добывается в открытом море
• sector: сектор, участок
• bypasses: обходит, проходит мимо
• strongly backed: получил серьезную поддержку
• economical: экономичный, выгодный