A syndicate of 15 commercial banks, led by ABN AMRO, Citibank and BNP Paribas agreed this month to lend the project at total of 936 million dollars. The rest of the credit is coming from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and from national export credit guarantee agencies.

In fact, not only Iran has a network of pipelines in use, but also its oil loading facilities at the Persian Gulf makes it the best route for delivering oil to thirsty Asian and European markets.

Four of the BTC shareholders, BP, Statoil, Total and ConocoPhillips, are to provide the rest of the credit themselves. BP -- which is also the biggest shareholder in the BTC consortium -- is putting up the lion's share, with a contribution of 560 million dollars.

Representatives from the three countries and a group of creditors signed the final agreement to a project that is expected to reduce United States and Europe’s dependence on the Persian Gulf, mostly from Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter and greatest known energy resources ahead of Iraq and Iran.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, Turkish Energy Minister Mehmet Hilmi Guler, the Chairman of Georgia international Oil Company’s Georgi Chanturia and representatives of the BTC shareholders and creditors attended the ceremony.

The young Aliev hailed the pipeline, 15 per cent of the works already finished, as having a "stabilizing" effect on the region.

"With the Wednesday agreement bringing the necessary funds to the project that some oil experts had contested its economic viability, the Islamic Republic has lost all hopes even for future pipe lines, as the Consortium envisages a second network for transporting the Caspian region’s natural gas to the European markets", Mr. Khavand pointed out.

Asked if in the oil giants and financiers would look to the Iranian routes for future projects, Mr. Nasir Shirkhani, an Iranian oil journalist covering for the London-based "Upstream" newsletter responded by the negative, "only if a country like the United States support the idea". "Economically and reasonably, the BTC project should have passed by Iran. But being a political issue, the Americans had decided from the outset to back it, rejecting Iran", he told the Farsi language Radio Farda.

At a signing ceremony in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, the project's backers said finalising the loan package proved the critics wrong and underlined that the pipeline was now a reality.

Green groups lobbied international lenders not to back it, arguing that it could endanger the fragile ecology of Georgia's Borjomi valley, which is the site of unique mineral water springs. But the Consortium said those fears were "unfounded".