 In November 1999, the presidents of Turkmenistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia signed a four-party inter-governmental agreement on building a rival Trans-Caspian gas pipeline.Within a few months, major oil and engineering companies—General Electric, Bechtel, Royal Dutch Shell—had established a joint venture to work on the competing project.By spring 2000, however, an argument had arisen among the Trans-Caspian participant nations over allocating quotas for Azerbaijan's use of the pipeline; as a result, all construction work was halted.