Georgia is located between Russia and Turkey. The country was formerly called the Republic of Georgia, but in March 2009 it changed its name to Georgia. Georgia is a country located at the southern foot of the Caucasus Mountains and its capital is Tbilisi. Tbilisi is adjacent to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and the pipeline for oil and gas is connected between the two. The pipeline is extended to Turkey, allowing oil to be transported over long distances.
Why Georgia was selected
The purpose of the pipeline is to transport crude oil easily and safely from one another covering long distance. BTC gas pipeline is connected wide range from oilfield, shipping port, and finally to the destination. The initial cost can be overly high but later will save the cost of long-distance transportation. However, there is not only advantage of it. The transportation range is fixed (more pipeline should be installed to expand more route), management is difficult due to hundreds of kilometer length, and can be the easy target of terrors. As you see the map, the pipeline passes through Georgia instead of taking the shortcuts. The reason can be found by observing the recent history.
There are many oilfields which is rich in reserves near Caspian Sea. The lake is located inland which makes difficult in transportation to European countries. In 1991, after the collapse of Soviet Union, the countries try to seek new pipelines which can supply the oil which later leads Turkey to construct it. In order to get supplies from Baku, Turkey had to select the countries among Iran, Armenia, and Georgia for the pass-through. During the times, Iran had faced economic sanctions from the United States, which made difficult to deal with it. Turkey did not have good relationship with Armenia as there was a case of massacre of Armenians during Osman period. Armenia claims that it is intentional offense, but Turkey has never admitted. Eventually, Georgia remains the only option.
Conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia
There is religious conflict between these two countries. Most of the Azerbaijani people Muslims, and most of the Armenians believe in Christianity. Moreover, these two countries are fighting for Nagorno-Karabakh, which belongs to Azerbaijan but located in part of Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh was regarded as part of Armenian province during Soviet days. In the late 1980s, the territorial conflict for the land was raised later eventually led to military conflict. Gorbachev issued a statement saying Nagorno-Karabakh would not be part of Armenia, which also prompted Armenia to take a tough stance. In December 1988, Azerbaijan The earthquake in Armenia killed more than 20,000 people and damaged more than 400,000. However, Armenia is said to have discarded most of the rescue supplies sent from Azerbaijan. This was a trigger for the bilateral relations to worsen. The recent clash between two former Soviet republics in September fueled deteriorated relationship.
Georgia's geographical advantage
Due to the historical background of Caspian area, pipelines had to pass through Georgia instead of Armenia. Transit via Georgia is costly in terms of time and construction expenses. However, it is politically safe. Eventually Georgia added its dollar earnings through tolls. Pipeline construction started from 2003 and ended in 2005. After the initials of Baku, Tbilisi, and Ceyhan, the pipeline is called BTC. The total length is 1,768 km and the crude oil transport capacity is 1.2 million barrels. On June 4, 2006, after the first ship departed from Ceyhan, 233 million tons of crude oil had been shipped by late 2013.
However, it seems that economic growth through the laying of pipelines has not been so smooth. This is because Georgia is facing the issue of segregation and independence between South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and Turkey is also involved in the issue of Kurdish independence. The security issues of the BTC pipeline remains till now.
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