The BTC – An interesting science project

Oil is essential to our way of life. It is also a highly limited resource. This is why it is so much sought after. That is also why you have the BTC pipeline. BTC is an acronym for Baku, Tbilisi and Ceyhan. The pipeline starts at the Caspian sea near Baku which is the capital of Azerbaijan. Then it passes through Georgia, the capital of which is Tbilisi and ends up on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey at the city of Ceyhan.

The BTC travels through three countries and joins two seas. It is said to be 1,768 km long, which makes it the second largest oil pipeline in the world. Which is the largest? The Russian one Druzbha is the largest one in the world. Yet given that the BTC consists of over 150,000 segments of steel of about 12 m length each, it is a phenomenal thing.

Naturally the pipeline would be too vulnerable if it ran all the way through three countries on the surface, so large portions of the BTC are underground. Usually it is situated at a depth of ten meters from the surface. Oil flows through the pipe continuously so keeping it in good working order is a huge task.

This can also make an interesting idea for a science project. Why not construct a model replica of an oil pipe placed over the map to denote the BTC? You can scale it down to a size that you can manage. The display board could give all the statistics of the BTC. It would make a spectacular science fair project. Why not give it a shot?