LONDON - Foreign companies developing the biggest oil project in the Caspian region were said Wednesday to be seeking ways to speed up the remittance of revenues to Azerbaijan, amid concern that a cash shortage could undermine the country's stability. The Azerbaijan International Operating Company, the U.S.-led consortium behind the eight billion dollar development of Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli offshore fields, has so far produced little oil since coming on stream last autumn and even less revenue for the government.

The financial times reported that it could still be some years before president Haydar Aliyev's government sees any sizable income from the project because the 1994 production-sharing agreement allows the companies to recover their costs first. It quoted one Western oil executive saying a way had to be found to provide money to Azerbaijan, warning that we can't play fast and loose as it was people's lives being talked about.

The growing unease follows increasing concern that oil reserves in the Caspian region have been exaggerated, while at the same time, pipelines needed to ship out large quantities of crude from the landlocked states remain unresolved. The problems facing AIOC is that its project, hyped as the sale of the century, is seen as a bellwether for international oil development in the region.

(IRNA)