Transcript
Event Summary: During the first half of the event, the discussion revolved around an overview of the project, its genesis and history of development, and its current status.
Pipeline overview
After opening remarks, the BP contingent began its presentation with statistics and details about the BTC project. As the largest stakeholder in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Company, which was formed to oversee the pipeline design and implementation, BP has spearheaded the BTC pipeline effort in collaboration with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), Unocal, Statoil, TPAO, Agip, TotalFinaElf, Itochu, Inpex, ConocoPhillips and Delta Hess. Once completed in 2004, the BTC pipeline will deliver oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil field off the Caspian coast of Baku to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, transversing 1,760 km through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. By delivering oil directly to the Mediterranean, the pipeline bypasses the Black Sea and avoids the narrow Bosporus Strait, already congested with tanker traffic. The total estimated cost of the BTC pipeline is $3 billion, which is just a fraction of a larger $12 billion upstream project that includes the development of the Shah Deniz gas fields and the South Caucasus (Baku-Tbilisi-Ezerum) gas pipeline. As the upstream project progresses and the Caspian fields are developed, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Company hopes to reach a peak volume of one million barrels of oil per day transported through the BTC pipeline by 2008-2009.
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