Banks back 1,100 mile BP pipeline

OIL giant BP is poised to secure loans worth £650m to complete funding for a controversial oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean.

Insiders at the company are confident that an agreement with a consortium of 15 banks led by ABN Amro, Societe Generale, Citibank and Japan's Mizuho, will be signed 'by the end of the month'.

The strategically important pipeline through one of the most politically unstable regions in the world will carry one million barrels of crude a day from Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

The project, managed by BP on behalf of a group of international oil companies, has been criticised by environmentalists, human rights activists and even some institutional investors.

The cost of the 1,100-mile pipeline is just under £1.6bn. BP and its partners are putting in 30% of the money. The rest will come in loans from banks and governmen-backed agencies.