The presidents of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey have opened the Georgian section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
The leaders attended a ceremony at a pumping station for the pipeline near Georgia's capital, Tbilisi Wednesday. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and his Azerbaijani and Turkish counterparts, Ilham Aliyev and Ahmet Necdet Sezer, said the new route will help their countries prosper.
The $4 billion U.S.- backed project is expected to carry one million barrels of oil per day. It will carry oil from Azerbaijan, and possible Kazakhstan, directly to Turkey's Mediterranean coast and to Western markets without passing through Russia.
The first section of the pipeline was opened in Azerbaijan in May.
Some information in this report provided by AP and AFP.