The Baku-Ceyhan Oil Odyssey 2000

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Between 22 August and 2 September 2000, Svante Cornell of CCC took part in the Baku-Ceyhan oil odyssey, a project committed to the idea of delivering the FIRST barrel of Caspian oil (from the Azerbaijani Chirag field) to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean through Ural sidecar motorcycles. The project was created at a small gathering in April 2000 in Washington, D.C. Only two people present then actually remained committed to the project: Journalist and writer Thomas Goltz, who  transformed the project from dream to relaity, and Svante Cornell. Most of the remainder of the team joined when Goltz presented the project at the Baku oil exhibition in June 2000.
The route was, naturally, not randomly selected: the international team equipped with 12 Ural motorcycles followed a route as close as possible to the planned and much-discussed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil main export pipeline.
The chief Azerbaijani cellular phone operator Azercell sponsored Cornell's motorcycle in the venture.

Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev presenting a symbolic mini-barrel of oil to the Odyssey participants, in the Presidential office in Baku on 22 August 2000.
Some of Aliyev's words, addressing the participants, deserve to be quoted:
"You are crazy... but you are heroes! .... You are great adventurers, but also great politicians..."

The team in front of the head office of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, Baku, minutes before departure. Svante Cornell in center, with Karl Griffin to his right.

Testing the bikes in Baku: Here on an AES-sponsored bike (later driven by Michael Scholey) in freont of the Hyatt Regency in Baku, which was kind to host the drivers free of charge

Cornell on the motorcycle carrying the barrel of Chirag crude in place of a sidecar. The motorcycle was not driven the over 2000 kilometers (1300 miles) by Cornell, however: Shahin Nazarov of Azerbaijan was entrusted with this duty.

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