There are huge oil and gas reserves on and off

shore of the Caspian Sea region. Contracts

worth billions of dollars had since been signed,
with the newly independent countries, and many
joint ventures had been formed, to develop the
regions oil and gas fields.

Stretching 1,760km of often remote and challenging terrain, the

BTC pipeline will be able to transport up to one million barrels of
crude oil per day from a cluster of discoveries in the Caspian Sea

Total oil reserves of the Caspian Sea region are estimated at above
200 billion barrels which exceeds that of Western Europe and/or the
United States 110 billion barrels and puts it in second place after the
Middle Easts 700 billion barrels. Total production, currently at 1
million b/d, could reach 3.4 million b/d by the year 2010.
The two main oil producing countries in the Caspian sea region are
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, with more than 80% of the expected oil
reserves and where 85% of the foreign investments in the region are
concentrating.

Photograph of the
biggest oil producing
country of the Caspian
sea region from space,
Azerbaijan.

The Black sea

The Caspian
sea
Azerbaijan

This is a $2.9 billion investment to

unlock a vast store of energy from the
Caspian Sea by providing a new crude
oil pipeline from Azerbaijan, through
Georgia, to Turkey for onward delivery
to world markets.

Stretching 1,760km of often remote

and challenging terrain, the BTC
pipeline will be able to transport up
to one million barrels of crude oil
per day from a cluster of
discoveries in the Caspian Sea.

With environmental considerations at the

top of its agenda, the BTC partners
considered expanding the existing
pipelines to the Black Sea, looked at
alternatives by rail and road, and
investigated the possibility of exporting via
Iran or Armenia before confirming that a
new direct route through Georgia and
Turkey to the Mediterranean was by far the
best way forward. The selected BTC route
combines the advantages of creating a
direct link to export facilities on the
Mediterranean coast while avoiding the
congested shipping lanes of the Turkish
Straits.

Part of the BTCs route

through mountainous
Turkey.

This huge project has involved many

different challenges to get to the finished
pipeline. 20,000 landowners consent had
to be obtained before the pipeline could
begin to be constructed. Completing this
complex project on time and to worldclass standards of safety and
environmental protection calls for closely
coordinated activity between project
teams in the three countries the pipeline
will cross.

An example of the harsh terrain that the pipeline runs along.