The pipeline project is highly controversial.
Non-governmental organisations have complained.

Some about human rights being abused, others about the pipeline's environmental impact.

The politically hard-fought about pipeline, forced trough by major investor BP, is about to open in the next weeks.

It runs through Kurdistan, goes close to the ceasefire line between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and is also vuknerable to anti-government attacks by seperatist groups in Georgia.

Green groups question the presence of such a project in what is a highly active seismic zone, saying any rupture of the pipeline would cause widespread damage.

In Georgia in particular there have been strong protests about the pipeline's route through the Borjomi Valley, one of the country's most scenic areas and a centre of tourism.

Western governments and financial institutions have given strong backing to the project.

The United States has given significant political support, seeing the pipeline as a way of transporting vital energy supplies out of the Caspian, avoiding alternative routes to the south through Iran, or to the north through Russia.

But Russia has been unhappy with the project, seeing it as further evidence of the West seeking to exert power and influence in an area Moscow has traditionally seen as its own backyard.