Amanda Rivkin

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline

At Five Years Old, BTC Pipeline Moves Oil, Culture

National Geographic

June 8, 2011

The landlocked Asian nation of Azerbaijan forged a powerful connection to the West five years ago with the first delivery of oil through one of the most ambitious energy projects of a generation—a $4.2 billion, 1,100-mile (1,800-kilometer) pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean coast.

When the deal was originally struck in 1994 for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline, the late Azerbaijan President Heydar Aliyev called it “the Contract of the Century”—the first time a former Soviet state had signed a deal for its oil to reach international markets without going through Russia.

It was also hailed as a major policy success for the United States, which had engaged in years of intensive diplomacy to build an avenue for Caspian oil wealth that did not rely on Moscow. (Related: BP’s map of the pipeline route)

The BTC has the capacity to deliver 1.2 million barrels of oil per day to the Turkish port of Ceyhan from the giant offshore Azeri-Chriag-Guneshli field, and the revenue Azerbaijan earns from this single project is a major driver of the nation’s economy. In the first quarter of this year, the pipeline was delivering oil at a rate one-third below capacity, about 800,000 barrels per day.

In the BTC era, Azerbaijan is literally and figuratively a nation between East and West. More than 99 percent of its population is Muslim, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. And yet, the government of Ilham Aliyev, son of Heydar Aliyev and president since 2003, has encouraged a more secular society. In the view of some analysts, he has fostered warm relations with Western governments, despite accusations of corruption, by positioning his country as a bulwark against Islamic radicalism and, of course, as a source of oil.

[...]

—Marianne Lavelle, with research by Amanda Rivkin

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. Young girls dress themselves appropriately for prayer upon entering the Shi'a Icherishahar Djuma Masjid or Innercity Mosque for Friday prayers in the old city on July 2, 2010. Viewed as "the wrong message" by the ruling regime of Ilham Aliyev, Islam has been shunned in favor of opulence and materialism for the elite and the imam of the Icherishahar Djuma Masjid was replaced after dalliances with the opposition in 2005, the time of the last major civil disturbances, and Iranian-style clericalism; the wider effect in Azeri society of the corruption that resulted from the second oil boom of the 1990s has left the society of the elite with great wealth but an absence of moral leadership, yet few have turned to Islam for answers.
   
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. The Caspian beach in Sixov in Bibi Heybat section on July 4, 2010. With offshore oil installations and an abundance of trash, the Sixov beach is only frequented by the rural and downtrodden from the Azerbaijani regions beyond Baku who cannot afford the private beaches where the elite go to isolate themselves.
   
GUNESHLI FOUR OFFSHORE OIL PLATFORM, CASPIAN SEA. Oil workers on Guneshli 4 offshore oil platform in the offshore Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil fields 60 kilometers from the Azeri coast in the Caspian Sea on July 15, 2010; oil from these fields is pumped into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
     
  
NEFT DASLARI, CASPIAN SEA 40 KILOMETERS OFF THE COAST OF AZERBAIJAN. Neft Daslari, or "Oily Rocks," a Soviet-built offshore oil installation that resembles a city with full dormitories for 3,000 workers, tea house, offshore oil platforms and a Heydar Aliyev Museum 40 kilometers from the Azeri coast in the Caspian Sea on July 15, 2010. It is the first offshore oil installation in the world and was several meters deep under water and in a state of decay by the collapse of communism; state oil company officials boasted that it was the engine of the Red Army during the Second World War.
   
ARTYOM, PIRALLAHI ISLAND, AZERBAIJAN. Women hang a rug to dry over pipes outside their apartment flats in Artyom on Pirallahi Island, Azerbaijan on July 4, 2010. According to the Azeri government oil deposits on Pirallahi Island are estimated at 1.2 million tons, yet most who live on the island are refugees and oil workers who live in dire circumstances; the Soviet-style apartment flats in Artyom were built by German war prisoners in 1948.
   
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. A man fetches water from a well in the Balaxani oil fields, one of the earliest oil discoveries in Azerbaijan and the most polluted part of the Absheron peninsula, on the outskirts of Baku on July 5, 2010. In the summer months, many residents who live at the very edge of the oil field complain that running water and gas are scarce commodities.
     
  
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. The Balaxani oil fields, one of the earliest oil discoveries in Azerbaijan and the most polluted area on the Absheron peninsula on the outskirts of Baku, with the high rise developments of Baku's booming city center in the distance on July 5, 2010. Several thousand families, many refugees and internally displaced, live in Balaxani.
   
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. A saleswoman adjusts the window display at Bulgari on Neftiler Prospekt, or Oil Worker's Boulevard on July 2, 2010. Luxury shopping in downtown Baku is one symptom of the city within the city or the country within the country where the elite, estimated at 50,000, control much of the country's income and profit from oil revenues, leaving a wide gap in the absence of a middle class between them and the rest of the country.
   
     
  
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. Safura Alizade, Azerbaijan's Eurovision contestant in 2010, with her mother, Naila Alizade, in her dressing room after performing at the opening ceremony of the International Wrestling Final Golden Grand Prix at the Heydar Aliyev Concert Complex in Baku, Azerbaijan on July 16, 2010. One goal of the current regime is to win Eurovision investing huge amounts of Azerbaijan's vast oil wealth in the effort, which some estimate at $20 million, and would result in hosting the European pop song contest in the Azeri capital Baku in an effort to show off the country's European qualities.
   
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. Aysel Teymurzadegi, who performed as Azerbaijan's contestant in the Eurovision song contest in 2009 and currently stars in Azeri commercials, with a friend and colleague, Zaur Darab-Zadeh (left), director of an internet radio station, on the rooftop of the Landmark Hotel rooftop terrace on July 3, 2010. In an effort at public promotion and demonstrating European aspirations, the Azeri government spends untold amount which one consultant estimated at 15 million in an effort to win the Eurovision song contest.
   
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. Bakuvians on the Bulvar on July 15, 2010, the Caspian seaside walkway that traces the luxurious center of central Baku and is a favorite among locals.
     
  
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. Wedding guests at the home of Inji Mamedova, the bride, as part of the ceremony to pick her up before marrying Fuad Gasimov, an engineer in the Gas Export Department of the Sangachal Terminal where offshore Azeri oil and gas are pumped into the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tblisi-Sepsa pipelines, on July 9, 2010.
   
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. Fuad Gasimov, an engineer in the Gas Export Department of the Sangachal Terminal where offshore Azeri oil and gas are pumped into the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tblisi-Sepsa pipelines, and his wife Inji Mamedova just after signing their marriage contract at a wedding palace on July 9, 2010.
   
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN. Audience members sit in front of a portrait and a quote by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev which reads, "Every single athlete should always keep in mind that he is representing not only himself but the entire nation," during the opening ceremony of the International Wrestling Final Golden Grand Prix at the Heydar Aliyev Concert Complex on July 16, 2010. Much like in old Soviet times, sports are used as a means of reinforcing the supremacy of the values of the ruling regime in Azerbaijan.
     
  
BOYUK OYRAD, NEFTCALA REGION, AZERBAIJAN. (Right-left) Emin Milli, an imprisoned blogger jailed for making a satirical video that indirectly questions the authorities in his country, with his wife, Leyla Karimli, at the gate of a cousin's home in Milli's father's ancestral village, Boyuk Oryad in the Neftcala Region of Azerbaijan on July 3, 2010. Milli was released from jail for one week to attend the funeral of his father and allow for the traditional one week of mourning that follows but was expected to return to jail on July 5; Milli was released early from jail four months later.
   
NAFTALAN, AZERBAIJAN. Quliyev Jeyyub from Tartar, Karabakh in the disputed once Azerbaijani territory now occupied by Armenia, sits in an oil bath at the Sehirli Naftalan Health Center and Hotel on July 19, 2010. Naftalan is famous for its oil bath treatments across the former Soviet Union and several such treatment centers exist in the town; patients are only allowed to bath for 10 minutes before having oil scraped from their bodies by a nurse attendant and showering.
   
SAKIRE, GEORGIA. A man drives his Mercedes down a dirt road as locals work on paving the road in the village of Sakire where there were almost no cars five years ago to over 200 today, according to locals, as a result of the dispersal of compensation funds stemming from land-use rights of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline which runs through the nearby mountains where manyin Sakire own land beside the village of Tadzrisi on July 24, 2010.
     
  
TADZRISI, GEORGIA. A woman chops firewood outside her home less than 50 meters from the route of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline on July 24, 2010.
   
TIMOTESUBANI, GEORGIA. Worshippers during Sunday mass in the Timotesubani Church on July 25, 2010. Located in the Borjomi gorge, the Timotesubani Church and monastic complex is a few kilometers from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline route, making it perhaps the most religious sites along the BTC route in Georgia, the only Christian country traversed by the oil pipeline.
   
ALAKHI SANGORI, GEORGIA. Mariam Aptsiauri and her husband Anzori Aptsiauri in their home on August 1, 2010. While the Aptsiauris have received nothing yet in compensation for having the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline traverse their farmlands, destroying the possibility for continued agricultural production there because of damage to the topsoil and live in poverty, their neighbor Gia Obgaidze is likely the largest recipient of compensation funds in Georgia, which he used to start a chicken farm in addition to remodeling his home; according to an attorney who formerly handled compensation issues with the Young Lawyers Association, Obgaidze likely received 187,000 Georgian lari or approximately $100,000.
     
  
AKHALKALAKI, GEORGIA. The Ararat market named after the famous Armenian mountain on July 25, 2010; Akhalkalaki and its surrounding Armenian-dominated region are bypassed by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline because of rocky soil and the expressed anti-Armenian preferences of Georgia's other two partners in the pipeline project, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
   
HASKOY, TURKEY. A Kurdish woman gathers water from one of the fountains that offers the only source of fresh drinking water in the Kurdish village of Haskoy, in the Ardahan region of Turkey, which is traversed by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline route, on August 10, 2010.
   
ANI, TURKEY. The abandoned ruins of the city of Ani, Turkey near Kars which was once Armenian inhabited and populated until the middle of the 18th century on August 12, 2010. Tensions between Turkey and Armenia over competing claims of genocide in the early 20th century have translated into diplomatic tensions and Armenian isolation from such important geostrategic regional projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
     
  
DAGCI, TURKEY. Rifat Yildiz, 68, stands beside a marker for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline on the land of neighbor Muaffer Akturk, 57, for which he did not receive compensation despite suffering a 50% decline in income resulting from agricultural production on his land in the Kurdish village of Dagci, in the Ardahan region of Turkey on August 10, 2010. Akturk won his court case against the state oil company, BOTAS, for compensation after independent consultant mistook his land for state property, but now there is a new court case between BOTAS and the Turkish government as to who will pay the compensation funds.
   
ALVAR, TURKEY. Women sit for a reading of the Koran late morning in the home of Murat Ozturk in the village of Alvar, Erzurum region, Turkey, which is traversed by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, on the first day of Ramadan, August 11, 2010.
   
ERZURUM, TURKEY. A male nurse stands over a man after giving blood at a blood drive organized by the Turkish Red Crescent in a tent on Cumhurriyet Road in Erzurum, Turkey, the first major city near the route of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in Turkey, located just 10 kilometers from the pipeline which traverses numerous villages near the city's airport, on August 11, 2010, the first night of Ramadan. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims are encouraged to give Zakat or money for charity, one of the five pillars of the Muslim faith, and those who cannot are instructed to donate blood and perform other acts of charity.
     
  
ERZURUM, TURKEY. A Turkish picnicker rocks her child as he sleeps in a hammock at a site near the Ataturk University in Erzurum, Turkey, the first major city near the route of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in Turkey, located just 10 kilometers from the pipeline which traverses numerous villages near the city's airport, on August 8, 2010.
   
ERZURUM, TURKEY. Erzurum in Turkey's far northeast, the first major city near the route of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in Turkey, located just 10 kilometers from the pipeline which traverses numerous villages near the city's airport, is perhaps Turkey's most conservative city, where chador is often more common than secularly dressed women on August 7, 2010.
   
YUMURTALIK, TURKEY. Mehmet Erzin, 40, a fisherman, leaves from the port of Yumurtalik, Turkey late in the afternoon on August 15, 2010 to go lay down his nets in the Mediterranean Sea. Many fisherman complain of depleted stocks and environmental damage resulting from the growth of industry and industrial dumping from a nearby thermal power plant after the construction of the end terminal of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was completed and located so close to their ports.
     
  
MEDITERRANEAN SEA NEAR YUMURTALIK, TURKEY. Mehmet Erzin, 40, a fisherman, separates the biggest fish from his catch after retrieving his nets early in the morning on August 16, 2010. Many fisherman complain of depleted stocks and environmental damage resulting from the growth of industry and industrial dumping from a nearby thermal power plant after the construction of the end terminal of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was completed and located so close to their ports.
   
CEYHAN MARINE TERMINAL, TURKEY. Philipino workers load Azeri crude oil from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline onto a Greek oil tanker, The Aegean Myth on August 16, 2010 before setting sail for Rotterdam, The Netherlands.