GEORGIAN COURT DECISION COULD FORCE DELAY IN PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION
7/03/03

A Georgian Court will hear an environmental non-governmental organization’s appeal to halt construction on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The NGO, Green Alternative, maintains that the government approval process that sanctioned the pipeline’s route through Georgia was flawed.

No hearing date has been set by the Georgian court that will handle Green Alternative’s appeal. The environment group, which filed its appeal in May, asserts the pipeline endangers the ecologically fragile area of Borjomi, which is home to mineral water springs. According to current plans, a 20-kilometer segment of the pipeline would go through Borjomi.

Construction on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline started last fall and is projected to be completed in 2004. Depending on the outcome of the Georgian appeal, the project, which has grappled with questions concerning its financial viability, could face a substantial delay. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The late June decision to hear the appeal "is essentially an acknowledgement from the Georgian court that something was amiss," said Greg Muttitt, a spokesman for the Baku Ceyhan Campaign, and organization that is opposing the pipeline’s construction.

"If at the hearing the court finds there was a breach of process, it could put a block on the construction," Muttitt added. "BP would have to reapply for approval of the project."

BP spokeswoman Sarah Howell said the company was aware of the Georgian court decision, but added that BP officials had not received any formal legal notice of the appeal.

Manana Kochladze, a Green Alternative representative, alleges the approval process for the BTC route did not conform to Georgian legislation. She also claimed the Georgian government came under pressure from the pipeline project’s sponsors to quickly approve the BTC route. The BTC consortium is headed by British Petroleum.

In a November 7, 2002, letter addressed to Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, BP’s president for Azerbaijani operations, David Woodward, pressed Georgian officials to approve Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) before the end of November. "Without this timely approval we cannot move forward with the [BTC] construction phase," Woodward wrote. The letter went on to suggest that Georgia could suffer economic consequences from any delay.

Subsequently, top Georgian officials voiced concern that BP sought to circumvent the normal approval process. A November 26, 2002, letter from Georgian Environment Minister Nino Chkhobadze sent to BP President Sir John Brown complained that the oil company was "requesting the Georgian government to violate our own environmental legislation."

Chkhobadze wrote that "not all risks were carefully assessed by BP, particularly in this [the Borjomi] region, during the ESIA process." The environment minister went on to suggest that BP was trying to present officials in Tbilisi with a fait accompli.

"The potential of the tide of public outcry poses a greater risk than financial loss," Chkhobadze added, urging the BP-led consortium to consider an alternate route. Woodward in his November 7 letter ruled out a proposed alternate route traversing the Akhalkalaki region, citing security concerns. Despite her stated misgivings about the project, Chkhobadze signed off on the BTC construction route shortly after the letter was sent.

Chkhobadze acknowledged in her letter that "public opinion has been greatly perturbed by this issue [BTC pipeline construction]." But what role public opposition played in the court’s decision to hear Green Alternative’s appeal remains difficult to determine.

"A recent public opinion poll said 73 percent [of Georgians] were against the pipeline," Muttitt said. "It’s a big issue in Georgia. What swung the court … legal arguments or public protest? I can’t say."

"Georgia is quite politically fractured as a country – it doesn’t have the [same level of] unified political muscle, starting from the president, as other [former] Soviet republics," Muttitt continued. "More than other countries in the region, there’s a bit of independence [among some government agencies and courts]."

Kochladze said that public skepticism regarding the potential economic benefits of BTC appears to be on the rise, as is concern about the potential environmental hazards. "People used to believe what they were told by the company (BP) and the government," Kochladze said. "But now they are asking more questions."

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Posted July 3, 2003 © Eurasianet
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