As world oil prices climb to new heights, officials and experts in Moscow revise upwards their production plans and propose quick solutions for clearing the bottlenecks in oil export capacity. In this stream of optimistic commentary, one key channel for delivering the Caspian oil to the world markets is notably missing -- the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, that will carry oil from Azerbaijan to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. After a slow and tortured start, this project is moving quickly ahead and the first super-tanker is scheduled to fill in about a year. Moscow has long since lifted its objections against this "unfriendly" pipeline. However, Moscow does not intend to prevail over the BTC pipeline in "honest" competition.
Baev, Pavel K. (2004) Is Russia Paying Attention to Baku-Ceyhan?, Eurasia Daily Monitor. 8 June.
