Watching the World: Bearing up in Baku

May 16, 2005
It’s been a long time coming, but the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline looks set to begin operations, and it is already causing quite a political stir in the region.

It’s been a long time coming, but the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline looks set to begin operations, and it is already causing quite a political stir in the region.

Last week, BTC Pipeline Co. started filling the head pump station at the Sangachal Terminal near Baku. The first stage of line-fill and operational testing came in anticipation of the celebration of first oil into the Heydar Aliyev BTC main export pipeline scheduled for May 25.

A total of 10 million bbl of crude oil is required to fill the 1,770 km line extending from the Sangachal terminal via Georgia to the Ceyhan terminal on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

Environmentally sound...

“The 1,770 km BTC pipeline will allow 1 million b/d of crude oil to be exported safely and responsibly from the Caspian without increasing tanker traffic through the Turkish straits,” BTC said in a statement.

“It is buried for its entire length and following construction land is being fully reinstated,” BTC added.

While the line may meet the demands of Turks and environmentalists, there are others in the region who may not be quite so pleased about its presence.

The project, one of the most costly of the original options for moving Caspian crude into global trade, received strong support from the US government, which wanted to preclude new pipelines transiting Russia and Iran.

...But politically touchy

Pipeline security is probably not the most appealing of jobs, but the BTC pipeline is more than just another line. That much was signified by the presence of US President George W. Bush in Georgia last week.

Bush made no bones of his backing for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s plan to peacefully restore the two breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Bush says he will try to help resolve the dispute if Saakashvili wants him too, offering to make a few phone calls.

Russia backs the separatist republics, adding to tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow. The two countries also have major differences over the withdrawal of some 2,500 Russian soldiers from the former Soviet Union.

This is the sort of political chicanery that Moscow employs to keep the region on edge. It is also the reason why Washington, DC, has begun mapping out plans for the so-called Caspian Guard program.

Reports say an integral part of the scheme will be state-of-the-art radar installations in Baku to monitor Caspian air and sea traffic. A major goal of the initiative is to protect the $3.6 billion BTC pipeline from terrorist attack.

Beyond the role in terrorist defense, the presence of security-related radar able to cover Russia’s industrial regions in the southern Urals will surely be seen in Moscow as another irritation.