TITLE:
Azerbaijan’s Energy Resources and BTC (Bakü Tbilisi Ceyhan Is the Name Given to the Pipeline Project Being Built for Crude Oil Transfer) Project
AUTHORS:
Elnur Hasan Mikail, Hakan Çora, Ali Nazmi Çora
KEYWORDS:
Energy Resources, BTC Project, Azerbaijan, Russia, USA, China, Turkey
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Political Science,
Vol.10 No.2,
February
28,
2020
ABSTRACT: Azerbaijan is a state that has significant oil and gas resources. After
gaining its independence, it
attempted to solve its own political and economic problems with the realization
of projects related to the exploitation
of these resources. The basic policy of the state is the diversification of
transport routes to export its own energy resources to the world markets. This
article elucidates and places the hydrocarbon-rich Caspian region in the
context of the energy needs of energy Turkey and the rest of the region. The importance of transportation routes from
the Caspian is highlighted and the potential of Caspian petrochemicals or
cooperation in energy field is explored. Furthermore, Turkey’s geographic
location is close to Middle East and the
Caspian Sea basin where 70 percent of the world’s energy resources that have
been identified to date is present in accordance with the report of Turkish
Ministry of Energy and Natural Sources
(https://www.enerji.gov.tr/en-US/Pages/Petroleum). For the transport of Caspian
Sea oil and gas reserves the route reaching the Mediterranean through the eastern Turkey is the shortest and the
low-cost, convenient and reliable option from a technological and environmental
standpoint. On the other hand, transporting such large amounts of oil from
narrow and traffic-intensive Turkish Straits by tankers is not a valid way. For
these reasons, Turkey has focused her
efforts on the realization of the transfer of Caspian oil and natural gas reserves
to the Western market over the East-West Energy Corridor. The pipeline projects
connecting the Caucasus and Central Asia to Europe are important for the
integration of the region into the West. Safe and commercially profitable
pipelines will help the region to achieve stability and prosperity. At this
stage, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
Crude Oil Main Export Pipeline (BTC) Project was planned for both Central Asia
and Azerbaijan oil. This is most commonly referred to as Baku Ceyhan (BTC). The
construction works are currently in progress as of 2005 and will start to pump
Azerbaijan’s oil through BTC at full capacity starting from the second quarter
of 2005 according to the approximate calculations. Within the scope of this
project, Azerbaijan has launched a new project for an alternative route to Baku-Supsa
and Baku-Novorossisk oil pipelines. Within the scope of this project, European
markets, which are new markets for Azerbaijan Petroleum, are opened. Since
Russia is against BTC, it is making all kinds of pressure on Azerbaijan side. Lastly, since 1 January 2005, Russia has stopped exporting its
natural gas to Azerbaijan. Russia says that the cause of the incident arose
from the problems arising in the natural gas lines imported in Turkmenistan.
This article will address the strategy and a tactical step that makes
Azerbaijan able to achieve the alternative export routes through BTC and its
direct and indirect effects on the region.