Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and Foreign Affairs Minister Ismail Cem made fresh attempts to promote a Central Asian oil export pipeline across Turkey in visits to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in the week ending 12 September.

Turkey has long promoted the $3,500 million pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan through Georgia to the existing terminal at Ceyhan. Ankara has said the terminal at the end of twin, Iraqi export lines can handle an additional 45 million tonnes of crude a year from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

Azerbaijan's President Haydar Aliev said on 8 September that the Baku- Ceyhan pipeline will be the main transport route for Azeri oil exports, and that he is actively working towards this end, according to the semi- official Anatolia news agency. Aliev also said Azerbaijan will be the main transit route for oil export pipelines from the region, according to Anatolia. The new Turkish initiative follows agreement between the Russian Federation and Chechnya on the transport of oil (see Regional Focus). Exports of oil from an Azeri concession in the Caspian are scheduled to start later in September. A decision on the export route for later production from the Caspian concession has yet to be made by the operating consortium, the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC).

State Turkish Petroleum Corporation, has a 6.75 per cent stake in AIOC, and is bidding for shares in other Azeri concessions.