Caspian producers contemplate excess of export routes

The fourth quarter of 2005 sees the commissioning of the latest oil export route from the Caspian: the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey. BTC is one of a series of potential export routes from Central Asia and the Trans-Caucasus. The proposed capacity of all these routes, however, far exceeds the volume of oil likely to be available to fill it at any time in the foreseeable future. Turkey nevertheless continues to press for more export capacity in an attempt to reduce the number of tankers passing through the narrow waterways that connect the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. For their part, Caspian oil producers want their oil to be transported by the cheapest and most direct route, which appears to rule out pipelines designed to divert their exports away from the Black Sea-Mediterranean sea-route. (author)