New Caspian pipeline could spark economic boom
A major supply route linking newly developed oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea with western markets is due to be opened. The pipeline is expected to spark an economic boom in Baku and within the next few weeks, oil from the Caspian will start flowing into a 1,762 km long pipeline, according to a BBC report.
The pipeline will run from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, near Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and across eastern Turkey to the port of Ceyhan, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. A consortium of companies led by BP is building the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. The project, costing an estimated US$3.6 billion, is described by BP as the world's biggest energy scheme.
Just to fill a pipeline of such length with oil will take up to five months and building work is understood to be progressing on schedule.
It is expected that tankers in Ceyhan will be loaded with Caspian crude before the end of the year.
The pipeline project is highly controversial although the governments involved have welcomed the project, the pipeline will run through regions populated by refugees. However, from long before work started on the pipeline in early 2003, concerns were raised about running it through such a volatile political region.
In Azerbaijan, the pipeline goes close to the ceasefire line separating the forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia, its neighbour and bitter enemy to the west. The two countries are locked in a bloody territorial dispute and, despite the ceasefire, clashes often occur. |
