The Critical Btc Pipeline ; One Alternative to Dependence On Iran

Summary

---

Yesterday, at the southern Turkish Port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea, the 1,087-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude- oil pipeline will be inaugurated at an official ceremony with the presidents of Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan in attendance. This historic event marks the culmination of a major U.S. foreign policy effort to connect the Mediterranean with the heretofore landlocked but energy-rich Caspian Sea.

Since the discovery of sizable hydrocarbon reserves in the Caspian Sea, a fundamental premise of U.S. energy policy has been the uninterrupted transportation of the Caspian's 80 billion barrels of oil to international markets, thereby diversifying world energy supplies and easing Western reliance on Middle East crude supplies. The new pipeline is the linchpin of this policy because it carries crude oil directly from the offshore oil fields of Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean via Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

The Critical Btc Pipeline ; One Alternative to Dependence On Iran

This world-class marvel of the 21st century runs entirely underground in order to preserve the environment. Operated by BP, it has the capacity to deliver more than 1 million barrels per day of crude ...

See the full content of this document

---