Environment:
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTESTS LINGER AFTER PIPELINE’S APPROVAL
Daan van der Schriek: 12/17/02

On December 13, less than two weeks after Georgian authorities approved construction of the $3 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, a manager from the company leading the pipeline’s construction announced that decisions on financing it would have to wait until 2003. That delay may give opponents of the pipeline’s route through an environmentally sensitive mineral spring more time to organize.

Georgia announced its approval of the 1,760-kilometer pipeline route on December 2, after the Georgian Environment Ministry gave up its protests that the pipeline should avoid Borjomi, a gorge, national park and mineral spring. The approval came after long negotiations and significant pressure from BP, the British-American energy conglomerate that leads the consortium building the pipeline. Two other major players supported BP’s chosen route: the governments of Azerbaijan, where the pipeline begins, and of the United States, which hopes to plumb the Caspian Sea’s oil riches without relying on Russia. The Senior US Advisor for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy, Steven Mann, urged Georgia to support the project and prevent any delays.

On the other side, the Dutch Environment Impact Assessment Commission (EIAC), which Georgia’s Environment Ministry had retained in an advisory role to review the Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA) ordered by BP, continues to view the Borjomi route as the least desirable of the available options. After Georgia’s official approval, opposition against the Borjomi route seems likely to continue but faces stiff challenges.

Georgian approval for the project came after intense negotiations. Georgian Environment Minister Nino Chkhobadze was called to the State Chancellery three hours after midnight on December 2 and reportedly gave up her opposition three hours later. Azerbaijan and BP – which deems the Borjomi route the most economic one possible – had earlier warned Georgia that if Tbilisi failed to approve the project by the end of November, the construction schedule might stall for at least 18 months.

According to local press, Chkhobadze refused to rule out litigation involving the Borjomi region and called on the consortium to submit documents, before construction begins, explaining why alternate routes would not work. “The [ecological safety] demands should be much tougher,” Chkhobadze was reported as saying afterwards. “But we gave in to pressure from the investors, who were threatening to pull out of the project altogether.” Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze later took pains to declare himself responsible for the pipeline endorsement.

But interested parties have invoked the possibility of scuttling the BTC pipeline before. When Mann visited Tbilisi, on November 25, he expressed what some observers interpreted as a veiled threat. If the BTC project falters in Georgia, he said, the country’s chances to attract other large-scale projects in the future would suffer. It is likely that this statement triggered fears that outweighed concern for the Borjomi gorge and its national park. Officials from BP and the Georgian International Oil Corporation (GIOC) have all but ruled out the possibility of an oil spill in the region. According to GIOC president Gia Chanturia, all emergencies related to the route can be managed and risk reduced “to zero.” This promise does not soothe those who fear for the ecological future of Borjomi’s springs, animals and beauty.

BP may contend that it has taken extra measures to keep Borjomi safe. Project investors did agree in the early December negotiations to enlarge security measures in the Borjomi region. At a press conference in Baku on December 4, BP Azerbaijan President David Woodward said that the pipeline consortium would commit to additional steps. These include doubling the number of valves and installing sensors to track inadvertent or illegal digging near the pipeline. These precautions, Woodward suggested, would safeguard the areas closest to the Borjomi spring waters without imposing “significant extra costs.” Woodward said he did not believe BTC would threaten the Borjomi spring. Shevardnadze said on national radio that guarantees of ecological safety for the construction of BTC “have been doubled and tripled.” Other forms of security are also receiving upgrades: National Security Council chief Tedo Japaridze told a Georgian news agency on December 15 that “commandos” trained by American officers might protect the pipeline from terrorists.

But a Dutch-Georgian corporation that draws water from the Borjomi spring, Georgian Glass and Mineral Water (GGMW), has consistently questioned the pipeline’s safety. “According to data given by BP itself, if there is an accident in the pipeline, oil will run down the hillsides and reach the center of Borjomi in four hours,” GGMW President Mamuka Khazaradze told the Tbilisi-based Rustavi-2 television channel on November 25. The company’s managing director Jacques Fleury told EurasiaNet that GGMW would do everything possible to protect its business.

The project consultant, EIAC, also reportedly remains skeptical about BP’s promises of protection. Just days before the final approval, the organization said in a press release that it preferred two alternative routes and called BP’s executed risk analysis “not transparent.” On December 1, a prominent Tbilisi environmental organization called Green Alternative cited EIAC’s skepticism in a press release condemning the route. The release read, “Essential information on security has not been provided and environmental information for the Borjomi/Bakuriani area is lacking. If this information had been included and valued in a proper way another ranking of corridors in BP’s ESIA report would have been the result.” EIAC stands by this assessment, according to press officer Veronica ten Holder. Green Alternative chief Manana Kochladze told EurasiaNet that her organization would keep trying to divert construction away from this area.

However, the same corporate pressure that may have swayed the Environment Minister would presumably confront any official who tried to force the consortium to change the route. Although Chkhobadze appended six pages of environmental obligations to the contract and Interfax reported Shevardnadze as saying that if necessary, the possibility of correcting the pipeline route is not ruled out, BP seems to think otherwise. Woodward said at a November 29 press conference in Tbilisi that changes in the route of the pipeline would not occur. Steven Mann had already said the same during his visit to Georgia. If the process of Georgian approval sets a pattern, these fiats will determine the route.

Editor’s Note: Daan van der Schriek is a freelance journalist based in Baku.