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ANKARA, Nov 5 (AFP) - An agreement for the construction of a multi-billion dollar oil pipeline from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan has been finalized here, officials said Friday.
The agreement will be signed by Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, through which the pipeline will run, during the November 18-19 summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Istanbul, the sources said.
"We have reached agreements," said under secretary of state for energy, Yurdakul Yigitguden, who added however that "details remained to be worked out."
The agreement was hammered out after several days of talks between representatives of the three countries and the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), a multinational oil consortium drilling in Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian Sea.
The United States, Turkey and Azerbaijan have been pushing hard for the 2,000-kilometer (1,259-mile) pipeline, which they see as a way to avoid shipping Caspian crude through Iran or Russia.
The AIOC had refused to bankroll the project until it was satisfied it would be commercially viable and sufficient volumes of oil were committed.
It had voiced concerns that the final cost of the project would outstrip the 2.7 billion dollars estimated by Turkish officials.
The sources, however, told AFP that "the problems with the companies have been resolved ... What matters actually is the agreement between the governments," the diplomat said.
He declined to comment on the financial terms agreed upon during the talks in Ankara.
However, US President Bill Clinton's special envoy to the Caspian region, John Wolf, who has been in Ankara since Monday, said that "there is work yet to be done" on the legal aspects of Georgia's participation in the project.
"As the talks go forward it is important to remember that Georgia has its own unique characteristics and the agreements it signs must conform to Georgia's democratic practices and its constitution," Wolf told a press conference.
He said the parties will be looking into issues such as legal requirements concerning land acquisition.
The US envoy urged the three countries and potential sponsors of the project to start "the serious planning necessary to meet the 2004 timeframe" for the realization of the pipeline.
While talks were still underway to iron out remaining points, Georgian embassy sources told AFP that the Tbilisi government was committed to the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline which they described as "a very clearly declared strategic goal."
The diplomat, who asked not to be named, said that during the three days of talks here "all principal issues have been resolved" and what remained unsettled were technical details.
Wolf urged that the remaining work should be completed very quickly in a spirit of "pragmatism".
"I am very, very hopeful that this package will be ready for the leaders (to sign) in two weeks," in Istanbul, he said.
Wolf said the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline is commercially viable, but shippers from the East Caspian should be encouraged to commit their volumes to the project. Talks on their participation were expected to start in the spring or summer of 2000.