The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) project is a $2.9 billion investment to unlock a vast store of energy from the Caspian Sea by providing a new crude oil pipeline from Azerbaijan, through Georgia, to Turkey for onward delivery to world markets.

Traversing 1,760km of often remote and challenging terrain, the BTC pipeline transports up to one million barrels of crude oil per day from a cluster of discoveries in the Caspian Sea, known collectively as the Azeri, Chirag, Gunashli (ACG) field. Between Baku in Azerbaijan and the export terminal in Cayan, Turkey, the pipelines make over 1,200 crossings of rivers ranging from wide alluvial rivers to steep mountain streams. A design requirement of the pipeline was for it to be buried throughout its length for security and environmental reasons.

A major design and operational consideration was therefore the optimum burial depth to ensure minimal risk to pipeline integrity from flood, earthquake and landslide damage. JBA was commissioned by BP to undertake an independent technical review of the procedures used to establish burial depth and to establish the residual flood and scour risk. The services included review of existing reports, meetings in London, followed by field reconnaissance to Georgia, and presentation of findings to BP and Georgian Government Agencies. As a follow on contract, the JBA project team of Dr Tony Green and João Santa-Clara was also engaged to undertake an analysis of flood risk for the Kura River Basin for the construction period of the pipeline and to design temporary river diversion works to allow construction of the pipe crossing of the Kura River in Azerbaijan.