Volume 2, issue #22 - 20-10-1997

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Study for trans-Iran oil pipeline

Sept. 9, 1997 A group of US oil companies, led by Mobil, has commissioned a feasibility study for a pipeline crossing Iran from the Caspian Sea fields off Kazakhstan through Turkmenistan and on to southern Iranian waters. Japan's Tomen trading house has been hired for the preliminary study of the potential for a pipeline, a report said.
Financial backing for the project has been sought from Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain, noted the report, which quoted Kazakh officials who recently visited the region.
Statements by the officials in Kuwait indicated that the emirate would provide backing for the pipeline project.
The pipeline through Iran is becoming more attractive as difficulties have arisen with a similar project to build a pipeline from the Tengiz field in the Caspian Sea to the Russian port of Novorossiisk on the Black Sea.
Indonesia's Medco group, which is acquiring Kazakh gas interests through its central Asian petroleum unit, has also expressed an interest in the trans-Iranian line, the report said.