On August 22, 2000, American author, journalist and academic adventurer Thomas Goltz and a group of motorcycle riders from almost as many countries began their first Oil Odyssey from Baku and traveling entire length of then-only proposed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline delivered first symbolic Azerbaijani crude oil to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in Turkey.Goltz’s URAL-style motorcycle was the lead vehicle in this historic journey.
Recalling Oil Odyssey memories Thomas Goltz said commissioned by President Heydar Aliyev in Baku on August 22, 2000 when he gave him a barrel of Caspian crude, the Oil Odyssey rode through deserts, forests and over mountains before arriving Ceyhan on September 3, 2000. A second Odyssey down the BTC in 2001 brought “first” Azerbaijani natural gas to Erzurum in eastern Turkey, and the last in 2002 marked the ceremonial ground-breaking of the BTC pipeline itself at the Sangachal oil terminal, south of Baku.
Second-in-command in Oil Odyssey was AIOC Vice President Ewen Patterson, who passed away in late 2014. Thomas Goltz dedicated his bike to his memory and imagination. Thomas Goltz presented the bike to SOCAR Education Training and Certification Department’s museum center, where it is treasured as a valuable exhibit.
