Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline goes to pieces?

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“US Overseas Private Investment Corporation is concerned with field joints of the pipeline and possible oil leak,” Ekho newspaper (Baku) writes.

An ecological disaster has already happened on the Azerbaijani part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, coordinator of Civil Initiatives Center, co-chair of the Greens Party (Azerbaijan) Mais Gyul-Aliyev commented to Ekho on an article published recently by The Guardian (UK). The article concerned BTC problems, it goes about OPIC concern that the OPIC does not fully implements its own recommendations in monitoring the pipeline.

The concern, first of all, is about field joints of the pipeline and a possibility of appearing cracks and oil leaks. In this connection, OPIC called for clearer control over the pipeline and fixing all irregularities, The Guardian says.

According to Mais Gyul-Aliyev, within three years foreign and national media, NGOs have been speaking of it. “Three years ago, the coalition of NGOs (including parties from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey) urged operator of the pipeline, BP Company, to introduce moratorium on construction of the BTC and carry out immediate analysis engaging independent experts.”

Today, according to him, when the pipeline is already accomplished, launched and is beneath the surface, nobody will make BP carry out the monitoring and replace low-quality pipes. “I am sure, now it is impossible,” Gyul-Aliyev added. However, as the coordinator said, “we do not lose hope and now pay attention to other serious problems concerning the BTC. One of them concerns rights of land owners violated during construction of the pipeline, another one – consequences for the environment.”

Besides, as the expert says, construction of the pipeline resulted in an environmental disaster in the territory of the BTC corridor. “Low-quality pipes were used, welding was done at a low level, on the whole the construction was carried out not by standards of Assessment of Impact on Environment and technical requirements. In this connection, soil on the territory of less than 422 km long and 58 m wide. It is impossible to bring back the soil,” Mais Gyul-Aliyev concluded.