One begins in Azerbaijan, just south of Baku, heads west for more than a thousand miles, crosses fifteen hundred rivers, high mountains, and sensitive terrains, and goes south across Turkey to the port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean. The Caspian Pipeline, which takes Kazakh oil to world markets, goes from Kazakhstan through southern Russia to the Black Sea. From there tankers pick up the oil and carry it through the Bosporus and into the Mediterranean and onto world markets. That pipeline is Kazakhstan’s essential connection to the world.
