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Public invited to comment on BTC pipeline
Stakeholder meetings in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia
Parties with an interest in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline are invited to take part in multi-stakeholder meetings to be held in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey between late August and mid-September.
The meetings are being organised on behalf of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), both of which are considering whether to lend money to the pipeline project. The pipeline will run 1,760km from oilfields in the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, through Georgia to a terminal at Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. (Although Turkey is not one of the EBRD’s countries of operation, the EBRD is liaising closely with the IFC on BTC issues in Turkey and will be a keen observer of the stakeholder meetings in that country.)
The Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) for the pipeline and its complementary project, phase one of the Azeri, Chirag and deepwater Gunashli (ACG) project, are available for public comment for 120 days, until 14 October 2003. The schedule for the multi-stakeholder meetings, which will provide valuable comments from communities affected by the projects, is as follows:
Erzurum, Turkey Tuesday, August 26
Adana, Turkey Thursday, August 28
Ganja, Azerbaijan Monday, September 1
Baku, Azerbaijan Thursday, September 4
Borjomi, Georgia Monday, September 8
Tbilisi, Georgia Thursday, September 11
The meetings are intended to build on and complement the considerable public consultation already undertaken by the project sponsors. The meetings offer the public an opportunity to express views regarding the BTC and ACG projects and to ask questions of the EBRD and IFC. The EBRD is also considering financing the Shah Deniz and South Caucasus Pipeline projects and the EBRD will answer questions on these projects as well. To ensure full transparency, meeting findings will be summarised and disclosed to the public later in the autumn before the EBRD and IFC Boards decide whether to fund the projects.
Non-governmental organisations, national government and regional/local government representatives, academics, research and environmental institutions, donor agencies, private citizens and private businesses are expected to participate in these meetings. More details on the programme, times and venues for the meetings will be provided shortly. Translation will be provided for all workshops. IFC & the EBRD are organising the public meetings with the help of a specialist firm, CDR Associates. They will be assisted and advised by local facilitators. Further information on the meetings can be obtained through CDR’s website (http://www.mediate.org) and by writing CDR at btc@mediate.org .
Press contact:
Kate Dunn, London - Tel: +44 20 7338 6930; E-mail: dunnk@ebrd.com
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