Caucasus and Central Asia in the Globalization Process
354
terminal in Ceyhan on the Turkish Mediterranean
coast.
3
After The 1,768-kilometre pipeline was
officially opened on 13 July 2006, during
February in 2007, the transported volume through
BTC has reached 600,000 barrels per day. By the
end of 2008 this volume will have increased to
one million barrels per day.
4
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) project 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.
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 envi-
ronmental investment ensures that the peoples of
the three host nations also share in the benefits.
5
Baku-T’bbilis-Erzurum Natural Gas
Pipeline
The Shah Deniz Natural Gas reserves are
discovered in 1999, it is estimated to contain more
than 400 billion cubic meters of gas reserves.
The 692km South Caucasus Pipeline Project is
aimed at transporting the natural gas produced in
the Shah Deniz lies under the seabed of the
Caspian Sea in 100 kilometers south of Baku in
Azerbaijan via Georgia to Turkey.
6
Spanning 690
kilometers, it will be capable of carrying up to
seven billion cubic meters of gas each year by
2006. At full capacity, and after additional stages
of development, the pipeline will be able to
export up to 16 billion cubic meters a year.
Negotiations which started in October 2000 for
the supply of natural gas from Shah Sea in
Azerbaijan were finalized in March 2001 and
Intergovernmental Agreement was signed by
Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of
Turkey and Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan
on 12 March 2001. Natural Gas Sales and Purchase
Contract was signed by BOTAS and SOCAR on
the same date as well. According to the Contract;
natural gas delivery for 15 years is going to start
with 2 Bcm and reach 6.6 Bcm on the plateau
period.
3
BP Sustainibility Report 2005, pp:7
4
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=
9006672&contentId=7014389
5
http://www.cec.az/eng/btc.html
6
http://www.cec.az/eng/shahdeniz.html
The South Caucasus Gas Pipeline (SCP) will
carry gas from the Shah Deniz field to customers
in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and other
countries. It is planned to follow the route of the
BTC crude oil pipeline through Azerbaijan and
Georgia to Turkey, where it will be linked to the
Turkish gas distribution system.
7
Baku-Tibbilis-Kars Railway
Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki-Kars railway link is
a strategic route that Azerbaijan and Georgia hope
will connect the railways of China, Central Asia,
the South Caucasus, Turkey and the EU. It will
boost annual continental trade between Asia and
Europe by rail to 10 million tons in few years.
8
The Prime Minister of Turkey, Tayyip
Erdogan, said in the official ceremony on the
skeleton agreement of Kars-Tibbilis-Baku railway
project that, Both parties, Turkey and Georgia
are going to open Trabzon and Batum Airports
very soon, and especially people in the North-East
part of Turkey and people in Georgia will benefit
from this, and such developments will increase the
mobility of labor and goods and services trade
between two countries and stimulate the trade
developments among those countries, Turkey,
Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Erdogan also said that
Turkey is in favor of the resolution of the
problems going on in South Caucasus and that,
will be able to give the wide range of the support
for this. Turkey has also commitment to provide
800 million meter cup of natural gas to Georgia,
which will decrease the dependence of Georgia to
Russia. BTK (Baku-Tibbilis-Kars) Railway has
many economic implications for three countries.
Those agreements will bring more economic
stability in the Caucasus region and will help to
eliminate some ethnic problems. BTK railway
project is providing economic, secure, shortcut
access from West to East revitalizing historical
Silk Road and making the project more significant
in terms of one of the most important phase
cooperation in transportation between West-East
Corridor. Besides The President of Georgia,
Saakaşvili said that the working on the Highway
Road project linking Istanbul with Batum is going
on at the moment.
This Project will bring more cooperation
mobility in commodity and service transportation
as well as labor mobility rather than specifically
cooperation in the filed of oil transportation.
7
http://www.cec.az/eng/scpp.html
8
www.Eurasia21.com
, European Union and Azerbaijan:
Azerbaijan’s Role in Europe Energy Security, Taleh
Ziyadov, 2006.
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