The Presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey will participate in an opening ceremony for the oil pumping station in Georgia’s southern district of Gardabani on October 12 to mark the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline’s Georgian section.
The U.S. Department of State’s Senior Advisor for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy Ambassador Steven Mann and British Petroleum chief executive John Browne are also participating in the ceremony.
The official launch for the pumping of oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was marked in Baku on May 25. A similar event is planned in Turkey in November.
A total of 10 million barrels of oil is needed to fill the 1,760 km long pipeline, 248-km of which is in Georgia. This pipeline is expected to bring Georgia an estimated USD 50 million per year for transit of Azeri oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, where it will be made available to western markets.
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