03 January 2005, 23:36
Quality of oil pipeline under question
In his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent, head of the Monitoring Group to Examine Pipeline Systems in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Mais Gyulaliyev claimed that low quality pipes are used to construct the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeikhan oil pipeline. According to Mr Gyulaliyev, "there's a certain international standard of quality for pipes used to construct oil pipelines, and the present insulation of the pipeline doesn't meet such a standard." "Several organizations from the United States, Great Britain and we urged BP to answer our questions about the insulation. But unfortunately we haven't received an answer," the leader of the non-governmental organization said.
"It isn't right to think that the project operator must be logically interested in the most safety oil pipeline in order to earn its profit for dozens of years," Mr Gyulaliyev continued. "BP is a kind of a state without borders with its huge budget and other attributes. Now BP isn't private property. Heads of many BP departments work in the company temporarily to a certain extent. So they use different opportunities to earn more from their company, and it isn't a secret. If our section of the pipeline is damaged by some external forces, then under the contract, the government of our country will have to pay all expenses for reconstruction of the pipeline from our budget."
Author: Zaur Rasulzade, CK correspondent
