Kazakh energy chief positive on transport

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Kazakh officials said geopolitical pressure on the energy-rich Caucasus and Caspian regions will have little impact on the transportation of natural resources.

Chief of the state-run gas and oil company KazMunaiGaz, Kairgeldy Kabyldin, said politics will not alter plans to deliver oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline or disrupt the capacity through several energy arteries, the Los Angeles-based Oil and Gas Journal said Friday.

"KazMunaiGaz is a business structure," he said, "so we do not make political assessments of these kinds of events."

He recognized the impact of diplomacy and political pressure on trade relations in the energy market, but said conflict, notably the Georgian row, has had little effect on transportation.

His comments came in the wake of several high-level visits by U.S. officials. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney visited the region in September to advocate the planned 2,000-mile Nabucco natural gas pipeline. For her part, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the Kazakh capital, Astana, Sunday on the heels of a major energy deal.