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| Home > News & events > 2003 feature stories > Hundreds attend BTC public meetings | |||||||||
Hundreds attend BTC public meetings |
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Land compensation, jobs and the environment were the on the top of the list of issues raised by local people at recent public meetings in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey regarding the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project. The meetings were organised by the EBRD and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The two are considering whether to lend money to the BTC pipeline project which will run 1,760 km and transport oil from the Caspian Sea near the Azerbaijan coast, through Georgia to a terminal on the Turkish Mediterranean coast of Ceyhan. About 800 people in total, most of them representing local interests, attended the six meetings held along the pipeline route in the three weeks ending 11 September. Topics discussed during the meetings included: • land compensation for users of communal property • jobs for local people in pipeline construction and operation • the route of the pipeline through environmentally sensitive areas • long-term monitoring of the construction and operation of the pipeline, particularly to ensure environmental safety • government management of oil and pipeline revenues • regional stability • preservation of bio-diversity and prehistoric sites along the route. Wide array of voices heard Non-governmental organisations, private citizens, private businesses, national and local government representatives, academics, research and environmental institutions and donor agencies were among those participating in the meetings which were open to the general public. Within the next few weeks the independent facilitators hired to organise the meetings will complete a report on the consultations. The report will be widely distributed: locally in paper format to those who participated in the meetings, with copies available in the local EBRD and IFC offices; and globally via the Internet. These stakeholder gatherings built on and have complemented the considerable public consultation already undertaken by the pipeline project sponsors. The stakeholder meetings are an important part of the two institutions’ ‘public disclosure period’ of 120 days, which began on June 16 with the publication of BTC’s Environmental and Social Impact Assessment report, and ends on 14 October 2003. Once the public disclosure period is complete, EBRD and IFC senior management will decide whether the proposal to finance the pipeline should be sent to their respective boards. If so, that is expected to happen before year-end. Banks may fund $400-600 million Together the EBRD and the IFC are considering lending between US$400-600 million to the project. They may also jointly finance up to $240 million of the cost of developing BTC’s related Caspian oil field development, the Azeri, Chirag and deepwater Gunashli project. The EBRD is also considering financing the Shah Deniz and South Caucasus Pipeline projects and answered questions on these projects as well during the stakeholder meetings. Contact: Outeach and NGO Relations, Communications department. 19 September 2003 |
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