Gazprom ready to buy Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline

Polish TVN 24 reports Gazprom head Alexei Miller has expressed the readiness of the company to buy some shares from BP in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. BP is the operator of this oil pipeline that pumps 35 million tonnes oil annually; this is about 1% of the world’s annual total extraction. BP also runs the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum natural gas pipeline. As reported previously the EU plans to start the NABUCCO project – supplying Europe with gas as an alternative to that from Russia.

Commenting on Gazprom’s plans, TVN 24 mentioned that Russia has been trying to destroy the NABUCCO project for a number of years. If it becomes a possibility that Gazprom will buy one of the aforementioned pipelines, Europe’s alternative supply of oil or gas in particular will come under question. It is interesting that only Gazprom’s leader has expressed a desire to buy BP’s shares, even though the Russian Deputy PM, Igor Sechin stated on September 1 in Krasnoyarsk that the Russian government is ready to support the initiative of Russian companies to purchase some of BP’s assets. He stressed BP’s current financial problems created by the recent oil leak in the Mexican Gulf.