ANKARA (UPI)–Azeri oil began flowing through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline and reached Ceyhan–Turkey–over the weekend.
Oil reached the Turkish Mediterranean port on Saturday–according to the Azertag news agency Sunday.
The BTC pipeline is designed to take Azeri and Kazakh oil through Georgia and Turkey to international markets.
The $4 billion–1,000 mile pipeline is aimed at reducing Western dependence on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The pipeline–which runs from Azerbaijan via Georgia to Turkey–avoids Russia.
Construction of the pipeline began six years ago.