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The BTC pipeline (Baku – Tbilisi – Ceyhan) , a 1,760 km-long crude oil pipeline running from Baku (Azerbaijan) to Ceyhan (Turkey) via Georgia was inaugurated in May 2006. Built and operated by a BP-led consortium, it is the second largest pipeline in the world and the most strategic project of the South Caucasus, both from an economical and political standpoint. Up to 1 million barrels a day will transit from the Azeri oil fields in the Caspian directly to the Mediterranean sea, enabling Western countries to avoid the Russian route and Azerbaijan to get direct access to international energy markets. The multi-billion 30-year oil extraction deal signed by BP with the Azeri government is referred as the “deal of the century” in Azerbaijan, a country now expected to be the richest country in the Caucasus. While the country will have black gold running through its veins, Azeri people have to face a bitter reality on the surface. 600,000 refugees and IDP’s (Internally Displaced People) from the conflict with Armenia for independence of the Nagorno Karabakh region in 1993-94 still live in train cars, mud houses, run-down buildings 12 years after the end of the conflict. With crippling infrastructure, social uncertainty, power in the hands of one ruler with virtually no political opposition, continuous human and civil rights abuse being reported, Azerbaijan is facing many political and social challenges that neither the West nor local governments seem to be willing to tackle. Oil takes priority. This series of pictures made in April 2006 is the first chapter of “A million barrels”, a three-leg photographic project covering Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, looking at social challenges along the BTC pipeline route.