Azeri (from BTC)
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) project is a $3 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.
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Traversing 1,768km 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, known collectively as the Azeri, Chirag, deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field.
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 vulnerable Turkish Straits. A programme of social and environmental investment is ensuring that the peoples of the three host nations also share in the benefits.
Line-fill of the BTC pipeline began at the Sangachal oil terminal in Azerbaijan on 10 May 2005 and the first export of oil from the Ceyhan marine terminal in Turkey commenced in June 2006.
Key facts about the BTC pipeline:
- Length: 1760km (445km in Azerbaijan, 245km in Georgia and 1070km in Turkey
- Diameter: 42 inches in Azerbaijan; 46 inches in Georgia; and 42 inches reducing to 34 inches in Turkey
- Capacity: One million barrels per day, or 50 million tonnes per year
- Design life: 40 years
- Maximum altitude reached: over 2800m
- Road and rail crossings: over 350 in Azerbaijan, 70 in Georgia and 300 in Turkey
- Watercourse crossings: over 700 in Azerbaijan, 200 in Georgia and 600 in Turkey
- Sangachal terminal, Baku: two new crude storage tanks, central control room, metering facilities and pumping station
- Ceyhan marine export terminal, Turkey: seven crude oil storage tanks, jetty to load two tankers of up to 300,000 dwt simultaneously, metering facilities, vapour incineration facilities, control room
- Pumping stations: two in Azerbaijan, two in Georgia and four in Turkey
- Metering stations: one each in Azerbaijan and Georgia, two in Turkey
- Speed of oil through pipeline: 2 metres per second
