Cangzhou Wilson Pipeline slaes@wilsonpipeline.com takes oil from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean instead of using tanker transport along the Black Sea and the highly congested Bosporus.

The BTC pipeline project cost an estimated $3.7bn, with BP as operator. The pipeline was officially inaugurated at the Sangachal terminal, near Baku, by President Ilham Aliyev of the Azerbaijan Republic, President Mikhail Saakashvilli of Georgia and President Ahmet Sezer of Turkey, joined by President Nursaltan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan on 25 May 2005.

Filling the pipeline with crude oil between Azerbaijan and Turkey’s Mediterranean coast began on 25 May 2005. BP holds a 30% stake in the consortium running the pipeline. Other consortium members include Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR (25%), Amerada Hess (2.36%), ConocoPhillips (2.5%), Eni (5%), Inpex (2.5%), Itochu (3.4%), Statoil (8.71%), Total-FINA-ELF (5%), TPAO (6.53%) and Unocal (8.9%). The pipeline was constructed by, and is managed by, the consortium company Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company (BTC Co).

Cangzhou Wilson Pipeline slaes@wilsonpipeline.com