Georgian Government Assures BP

A positive meeting with BP executives lead to Georgia's president-elect, Mikhail Saakashvili, confirming his commitment to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. BP, which heads a consortium building the pipeline, agreed at the meeting to donate $1 million towards the republic's heating bill this winter.

There had been speculation that the new Georgian leader and his two key allies in the popular uprising against former President Eduard Shevardnadze could make trouble for the pipeline, because their Armenian roots would pit them against a project that stands to benefit Armenia's arch-enemies Azerbaijan and Turkey. In the final months of Shevardnadze's rule, opposition groups in Georgia had stirred up environmental opposition to the pipeline crossing the Borjomi national park.

Two human rights groups have applied to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg to take the European Commission to court over BTC. "The court case dramatically increases the political risks that the pipeline's financial backers now face," said a press release issued by the Kurdish Human Rights Project and UK-based organization Corner House.

BP feels it has adequately met any environmental and human rights concerns about the impact of the 1 million barrel per day pipeline that is on schedule to start pumping oil from Caspian fields to the Turkish Mediterranean coast in early 2005.