Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline

Read more about the pipeline spanning three countries from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean coast

The pipeline length is 1768km in total length.
The diameter of the pipeline is 42 inches.
BTC’s throughput capacity is currently 1.2 million barrels per day.
The BTC pipeline facilities include: Eight pump stations (two in Azerbaijan, two in Georgia, four in Türkiye),one pressure reduction station, two intermediate pigging stations, 101 block valves
The BTC passes over 1,500 river and 13 seismically active fault crossings and climbs to a high point of 2,800 metres before returning to sea level at Ceyhan

Baku-Tbilisi Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline carries oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field and condensate from Shah Deniz across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye. It links Sangachal terminal on the shores of the Caspian Sea to Ceyhan marine terminal on the Turkish Mediterranean coast. In addition, crude oil from Turkmenistan continues to be transported via the pipeline. Starting in October 2013, we have also resumed transportation of some volumes of Tengiz crude oil from Kazakhstan through the BTC pipeline.

The pipeline that became operational in June 2006 was built by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline company (BTC Co) operated by bp. The pipeline buried along its entire length is 1768km in total length: 443km in Azerbaijan, 249km in Georgia, and 1,076km in Türkiye. The Azerbaijan and Georgia sections of the pipeline are operated by bp on behalf of its shareholders in BTC Co. while the Turkish section is operated by BOTAS International Limited (BIL).

The diameter of the pipeline is 42 inches throughout most of Azerbaijan and Türkiye. In Georgia the pipeline diameter is 46 inches. The pipeline diameter reduces to 34-inches for the last downhill section to the Ceyhan Marine Terminal in Türkiye. Throughput capacity – one million barrels per day from March 2006 to March 2009. Since March 2009 it has been expanded to 1.2 million barrels per day by using drag reducing agents (DRAs).

On 11 August 2014, BTC celebrated the loading of the 2 billionth barrel of oil at the Ceyhan terminal in Türkiye. The BTC pipeline passes through 13 districts in Azerbaijan: Garadagh, Absheron, Hajigabul, Agsu, Kurdamir, Ujar, Agdash, Yevlakh, Goranboy, Samukh, Shemkir, Tovuz, Agstafa; 7 in Georgia and 9 in Türkiye.

On 12 December 2021, BTC reached a significant milestone by achieving 500 million tonnes of oil export in total from the Sangachal terminal near Baku across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye to Ceyhan.

In the first three quarters of 2024, BTC Co. spent $104 million in operating expenditure and $28 million in capital expenditure.

Since the 1,768 km BTC pipeline became operational in June 2006 till the end of September 2024, it carried a total of around 4.4 billion barrels (about 583 million tonnes) of crude oil loaded on 5,786 tankers and sent to world markets.

In the first three quarters of the year, about 165 million barrels (22 million tonnes) of BTC-exported crude oil was lifted at Ceyhan and loaded on 229 tankers.

The BTC pipeline currently carries mainly ACG crude oil and Shah Deniz condensate from Azerbaijan. In addition, other volumes of Caspian regional crude oil and condensate (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, other SOCAR volumes produced in Azerbaijan) continue to be transported via BTC.