The Baku Tiflis Ceyhan pipeline (BTC) is a pipeline, which transports crude oil of the rich oil fields in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan at the Kaspi sea under western direction to the Mediterranean. Them became to 25. May 2005 taken in enterprise and is 1,760 kilometers long. It is to make the west more independent of the crude oil from the region at Persian Gulf.

Technical data

The BTC begins at the terminal Sangachal with Baku, crosses Azerbaijan (442 kilometers), leads by Georgien (248 kilometers) and Turkey (1,070 kilometers), in order to end at the Mediterranean port Ceyhan in a loading station. Meters high mountains must be overcome up to 2,800. The pipeline has eight pumping, two scrapper-cleaning and 87 valve block act ions. It will underground bury a meter on its entire length, so that it is secured before acts of sabotage. It has mostly a diameter of 42 tariff, close Ceyhan narrows itself it on 36 tariff. It has one life span of approximately 50 years. If it achieves its planned full capacity, it is to transport daily one million barrel (160,000 cubic meters) oil. The transport costs are to amount to 3.2 US Dollar per barrel.

The construction costses amounted to approximately 2.5 billion euro. They were financed to large parts of the World Bank and the European bank for reconstruction and development assistance (EBRD). Owner is a consortium formed from eleven oil companies, at which the anglo American BP company holds most portions. Commencement of construction was 2002.

Politics

The USA publicised the building of the BTC since 1998. In the opinion US-American vice-energy Minister at that time Robert Gee became "exports from the kaspischen region ["Â…] the energy offer world-wide diversify and thus a too large dependence on Persian Gulf avoid ". On 18 November 1999 the presidents of Turkey, Georgiens, Aserbaidschans and the USA, Demirel, Eduard Shevardnadze, liyev and Bill Clinton signed, in Istanbul a declaration of intent for the building of the pipeline. On 18 September 2002 they made the first cut of the spade in Baku.

Planning shifted the up to then world-politically insignificant earlier Soviet republics Azerbaijan and Georgien into a geopolitical Filetlage. The Caucasus states got the chance to follow more closely NATO and the European union with development assistance projects and military aid were strengthened. Turkey was strengthened by the pipeline as regional power and makes it more independent of oil and gas supplies from Russia as well as Iran.

Russia suggested first that the pipeline could lead across its area. Later it, explained would see no economic advantage in a participation in the project.

Driven

Georgien, Azerbaijan and Turkey intend to create a military alliance for the protection of the pipeline. The government in Tiflis set up a 400-Mann-starkes special battalion, which was trained by US-American Instrukteuren. It wants to supervise the BTC additionally with unmanned airplanes, so-called drones, of the type global Hawk before notices of terror. They are produced by the arms enterprise Northrop Grumman to the unit price of 123 million dollar.

Resistance against the pipeline moved mainly in the camp of the environmentalists. In August 2004 the pipeline construction place had to be shut down for two weeks, because the minimum requirements for environmental protection were not kept. The pipeline crosses the planned national park Gobustan (Azerbaijan), the protected area Qtsia Tabatskuri (Georgien), the carrier zone of the Bordschomi Charagauli national park (Georgien) and the game protected area Posof (Turkey). A pipeline accident could damage their ecological systems lastingly. The World Wide find for Nature (WWF) criticized the project. In Oxford the residents Baku Ceyhan Campaign turns against the use of public funds for projects, which are exclusive in the interest of the private sector.

Miscellaneous items

The BTC already found its way into the popular culture: It was not the central Plot of the James bond film the world is enough (1999). One of the main persons, Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), is responsible for the construction of an oil pipeline, which leads from the Kaspi sea by the Caucasus to the Turkish Mediterranean coast.

The BTC consortium

• BP (Great Britain, the USA): 30.10%
• State oil company OF Azerbaijan (SOCAR) (Azerbaijan): 25.00%
• Unocal (the USA): 8.90%
• Statoil (Norway): 8.71%
• Turkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortakligi (TPAO) (Turkey): 6.53%
• ENI/Agip (Italy): 5.00%
• TotalFinaElf (France): 5.00%
• Itochu (Japan): 3.40%
• Inpex (Japan): 2.50%
• ConocoPhillips (the USA): 2.50%
• Amerada Hess (the USA) 2.36%

See also

• South Caucasus pipeline
• Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan pipeline

Literature

• Rainer Friday Wirminghaus: Geo politics at the Kaspi sea: The fight for new energy resources. Bundesinstitut for eastscientific and international studies, Cologne 1998
• Gkay: Caspian of uncertainties: regionally rivalries and pipelines. In: Perceptions. Bd. 3 (1998/99) (1998), 1, P. 49 - 66
• Ian Bremmer: Oil politics: America and the riches OF the Caspian Basin. In: World policy journal. New York, NY: Inst., Bd. 15 (1998), 1, S.27 - 35
• Daniel Yergin: The price: The hunt for oil, money and power. Fischer, Frankfurt/Main 1991, ISBN 3-10-095804-7
• Michael P. Croissant (Hrsg.):

Related links

• Baku Tiflis Ceyhan pipeline (EN)
• Interactive map of the Baku Tiflis Ceyhan pipeline with pictures of the building site (de)
• S. Frederick rigid, Svante E. Cornell (Hrsg.): The Baku Tiflis Ceyhan pipeline: Oil window to the west - pdf files (EN)
• Strategic interests of the USA to the BTC (EN)
• Criticism '' of the World Wide find for Nature '' (pdf file) (de)
• Criticism '' of the Baku Ceyhan Campaign '' (EN)
• randbild.de photo & text report over the Georgian section of the BTC pipeline in the spring 2005
• TURKEY AND THE AZERBAIJANI OIL OF CONTROVERSIES: LOOKING FOR A LIGHT RK THE END TO OF THE PIPELINE

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