CEYHAN - The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline officially inaugurated here Thursday is a massive, strategically vital US-backed project to supply Caspian oil to Western markets.
The conduit bypasses Russia and Iran as it carries crude from the Caspian fields, the world`s third largest reserve, to this eastern Mediterranean Turkish port. It is also seen as easing Western reliance on Middle East oil.
The 1,774-kilometer (1,109-mile) pipeline goes from Baku through Georgia and Turkey to Ceylon, carrying Azeri Light oil which is then loaded on tankers bound for Western ports.
The first shipload sailed for Italy on June 4.
The BTC`s longest stretch -- 1,074 km -- runs through Turkey with a further 440 km in Azerbaijan and 260 km in Georgia.
The pipeline is designed to transport up to 50 million tonnes of crude a year at full capacity, but it is not yet known when full capacity will be reached.
Kazakhstan signed on to the project last month, committing an initial 7.5 million tonnes a year with a pledge of 20 million tonnes in the longer term.
The pipeline was built by an international consortium led by the British oil giant BP, which holds 30.1 percent of the shares, followed by Azerbaijan`s public oil group Socar, with a 25-percent stake.
Other participants are Unocal of the United States with 8.9 percent, Norway`s Statoil (8.71 pct), Turkey`s TPAO (6.53 pct), Italy`s ENI (5.0 pct), France`s Total (5.0 pct), Japan`s Itochu (3.4 pct) and Inpex (2.5 pct) and the US firms ConocoPhillips (2.5 pct) and Amerada Hess (2.36 pct).
The pipeline is seen by the West as a project of geostrategic significance, loosening Russia`s long-standing grip over oil exports from the Caspian and isolating Iran, also an oil producer.
It also avoids the Bosphorus, where congestion and possible tanker accidents pose a permanent environmental and security risk to people living on the banks of the narrow waterway that passes through Istanbul, a city of 12 million.
Construction, which began in 2000, was a particularly arduous task, the pipeline going underground at times and crossing mountains more than 2,800 meters (9,240 feet) high at others.
The BTC went one billion dollars (786 million euros) over its three billion dollar (2.36 billion euro) budget, with building work hampered by environmental and expropriation problems in Georgia and its route constantly redrawn as it crossed Turkey to avoid 350 archaeological sites unearthed in 64 different locations.
07/13/2006 11:49 GMT