Azerbaijani-Kazakh Deal To Help Soothe BTC Investor Nerves

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan reached a preliminary agreement Sept. 3 to ship Kazakh crude through the still-under-construction Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The agreement will stabilize the shaky economics of the BTC and allow for more rapid development of the geopolitically important project. The agreement will not be enough to pull Kazakhstan out of Russia's geopolitical orbit, but that isn't stopping Astana from expanding its export options and reducing — slightly — its dependence upon its northern neighbor.