ISTANBUL, Turkey — The United States, Turkey and two Caspian Basin nations will announce agreement today on a plan to build a 1,240-mile pipeline that would tap rich oil fields in Central Asia while further weakening Russia's grip on a region once firmly in the Soviet orbit.
The $2.4-billion project would carry up to 1 million barrels of oil a day from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, through Georgia before finally reaching Ceyhan, a Turkish port on the Mediterranean Sea, where it would be pumped aboard tankers.
The agreement, while coming as no surprise to Moscow, is sure to cause friction in what was already expected to be a difficult meeting today between President Clinton and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on the fringes of a European summit here.
U.S. officials, uncertain how Yeltsin will respond to increasing Western pressure to restrain the Russian war in the separatist republic of Chechnya, are approaching the meeting with the Russian leader with some trepidation.
"It is possible they will go on the offensive to avoid being put on the defensive," a senior Clinton administration official said, adding, "There is no such thing as a predictable meeting with Yeltsin."
The Russian president sounded defiant on his arrival in Istanbul.
Asked whether Russia will reach an understanding on Chechnya with the West during the two-day summit, he replied: "I hope that, on the contrary, everyone will realize that in Chechnya, Russia is acting in compliance with international, civilized standards and rules. . . . I am sure this will happen, especially after my speech at the summit."
Recognizing that the oil pipeline project will add fuel to the fire, U.S. National Security Advisor Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger on Wednesday tried to reassure Moscow on the plan, saying, "This is not directed against Russia in any way."
Russia made a last-ditch bid two weeks ago to halt the project, dispatching a deputy prime minister to Azerbaijan and seeking to maintain support for an existing distribution system that crosses Chechnya. But the mission failed, with investors concerned about the risk to any pipeline built through a region where Russian troops are battling Islamic insurgents.
Geopolitical issues were the key factor in the Clinton administration's push for the Turkish pipeline route.
The oil-rich Caspian states are landlocked. To move the oil to Western markets, pipeline builders had three choices: Move the oil by pipeline north into Russia, south into Iran or west, toward Turkey.
