93 Percent Of Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan Project Completed

ANKARA (AA) - 93 percent of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude oil pipeline project has been completed as of January 9th, 2005, said authorities today.
     The project aims 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.
     Traversing 1,760 km of 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. 1,076 km of the pipeline will be on Turkish territory.
     By creating the first direct pipeline link between the landlocked Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean, the BTC project will bring positive economic advantage to the region and avoid increasing oil traffic through the Turkish straits.
     The BTC pipeline is due to become operational in early 2005 with first oil planned to be exported from the Ceyhan marine terminal during the second half of the year.
     (ES-MS)
2005-01-27