OIL PIPE CONSTRUCTION RESULTED IN ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE ON BTC CORRIDOR

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.02.2007 14:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ American state agency Overseas Private Investment
Corporation (OPIC) is concerned over assembly connections of pipes
of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, as well as over possible chaps and
leak of oil, The Guardian reports.

Particularly, the article says that OPIC does not fulfill its own
recommendations on monitoring the pipeline properly. "OPIC calls upon
more accurate control over the pipeline and remedying defects," The
Guardian writes. Head of Green Party of Azerbaijan Mais Gyulaliev, says
that during the past 3 years Media representatives and British, German,
Italian NGOs, as well as an NGO coalition, which includes organizations
of third sector of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, are publicly
speaking about this important issue. "Still three years ago the
coalition demanded from the operator of pipeline constructor-British
Petroleum, to impose moratorium on the construction of BTC and carry
out an urgent analyses with the help of independent experts. But
today, when the pipeline has already been put in commission and is
under the ground, nobody will make BP conduct monitoring and change
pipes of poor quality," he says.

Besides, Mais Gyulaliev is sure that the construction of the pipeline
has already resulted in ecological catastrophe on the territory of BTC
corridor. "Pipes of poor quality have been used and the welding works
have been done on a very low level. Generally, construction works
have been carried out not in accordance with the standards of AIE
(Appreciation of Influence on the Environment) and technical standards.

In this regard soil on territory of 422 km and 58-km length has been
destroyed. And the loss is impossible to rehabilitate," he stressed,
realazer.net reports.