ABSTRACT
On 16 June 2006 two former Soviet Republics, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, signed an agreement for the transit of Kazakh oil through the new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. The first oil to reach Ceyhan under this agreement, and to be loaded on to an oil tanker, did so within a month, on 13 July 2006. This ended Kazakhstan's dependence for its oil exports on the Atyrau-Novorossisk route throuh Russia.
