One of Turkey's biggest dreams has always been to become an important contributor to the international oil market, and this may be actually coming true, now that the country has just opened the Caspian sea oil pipeline, also known as BTC, because it runs through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyahn.

The pipeline was no piece of cake in terms of financial investment, since it cost 4 billion dollars, yet it represents quite an impressive achievement. It stretches 1,700 kilometers through Azerbaijan and Georgia and ends in the city of Ceyhan, on the eastern coast of Turkey, bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It has a full capacity of delivering around 1 million barrels from the Caspian Sea fields, the third-largest in the world, to the West, on a daily basis, yet according to experts' analyses, this enormous quantity may not be reached in the following year.

The inauguration ceremony took place yesterday, with the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdrogan, calling it emphatically "The Silk Road of the 21st century". He added that this pipeline would be able to increase economic development and cooperation among the countries in the region that have been so much affected by the Cold War.

On the other hand, Ilham Aliyev, the Azeri president, praised the United States for the input with which it contributed for the achievement of this important economic project: "We always felt the support of the United States and we are very grateful for their efforts". The project was initially designed 12 year ago and was strongly supported by the Washington administration, in an attempt to soften the grip Russia had over the oil exports of the countries of the former Soviet bloc. At the same time, the project proved lucrative for the US because the pipeline avoids supplies from the tense Middle East region.

The last to join this project was Kazakhstan, who signed an agreement last month, initially committing to 7.5 million tones yearly, and then promising to rise to 20 million tones in the future.

The inauguration of this pipeline by Turkey, which is also the end-point of another pipeline that comes from the northern part of Iraq, was made just two days before Vladimir Putin opens the G8 summit in Russia, which will focus on energy security.