Oil pipe construction resulted in ecological catastrophe on BTC corridor

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.