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 region’s oil and gas fields.

V 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 East’s 700 billion barrels. Total production, currently at 1 million b/d, could reach 3.4 million b/d by the year 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 BTC’s 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 world- class 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.